Journey Under the Midnight Sun

Dark And Twisted

One of Keigo Higashino’s earlier books, The Devotion Of Suspect X made his international reputation as a master of crime fiction and his cult has only grown since.

His latest book, Journey Under The Midnight Sun (translated from the original Japanese by Alexander O. Smith and Joseph Reeder) is an intricately plotted book with unpredictable turns and a really shocking twist at the end.

The thick novel begins in 1973 in Osaka, with the discovery of a body in an abandoned building.  Detective Sasagaki gets to handle the case and he does all he can to find the killer, but every lead is a dead end. Still, for twenty years he stays obsessed with the case, long after the statute of limitation sets in.

The murdered man was a pawnbroker, Yosuke Kirihara, whose son Ryo is a sullen and strange child, who knows more than he lets on. The main suspect is a struggling single mother, who may have been the man’s lover. But then her daughter Yukiho,discovers the her mother’s corpse and the cops conclude suicide due to strained circumstances. Yukiho, a very self-possessed child, is then brought up by a kind relative. She grows up to be a smart and successful entrepreneur, but with secrets tucked away behind her beautiful (“There are thorns in her eyes,” a friend says about her) and friendly exterior.

The complex story with minute detailing (the sound of a bell tinkling in bag connects to a horrific crime, as does a broken key chain) has a cocktail of inflammable ingredients—sex, obsession, brutality, perversion, betrayal—that Higashino expertly blends. 

The book is like peeling an onion with layers and layers revealing new characters and fresh subplots, all of which are connected to the main plot. At the heart of it is a dark and twisted love story that emotionally destroys the two people involved, so that they are capable of enormous cruelty.

The story follows Ryo and Yukiho through their unsettling childhood (young girls are kidnapped and raped around their school) to adulthood. The people who love them cannot quite understand their furtive behavior or their devious minds.

As the years pass, Higashino introduces computers, gaming, piracy and computer hacking, and organized crime.  But at the centre are echoes of that that long ago murder and the link between Ryo and Yukiho. Sasagaki asks "Ever heard of the goby and the shrimp?" and explains, “Yukiho Karasawa and Ryo Kirihara have what biologists call a symbiotic relationship. One can't live without the other. They're a pair for life."

But they are never together, yet never apart. The story swirls around them, many characters enter and exit and push it towards its intriguing climax. A fascinating unputdownable read.

Journey Under the Midnight Sun 

By Keigo Higashino 

Published by Little, Brown

Pages: 554

Wind/Pinball

Begin Again

Haruki Murakami is the most popular Japanese author today, whose name comes up every year as a contender for the Nobel Prize. 

His books are an enigmatic mix of social comment, mystery, sci-fi, fantasy and romance that no other writer has managed to put together with such dexterity. But how did this remarkable career begin?

           

Pinball, 1973 was first published in in 1980,  the second book in the Rat Trilogy, preceded by Hear The Wind Sing (1979) and followed by A Wild Sheep Chase (1982). Now Wind/Pinball  have been translated (by Ted Goossen) and published together, with an introduction -- The Birth of My Kitchen-Table Fiction -- by Murakami himself, in which he reveals how he started writing.  They contain all the classic Murakami tropes, but are relatively simple as compared to his later, increasingly surreal, books.

The protagonist is a chain-smoking, heavy drinking drifter, with an oddly apathetic attitude to life. Both short novels feature this unnamed young man and his even more mysterious buddy, the Rat, hanging out at J’s bar and having desultory conversations.  In Pinball, the narrator  sets up a translation company, lives with submissive twins who could only come out of an adolescent’s fantasy, and becomes fixated on a particular pinball machine.

There is not much of a plot in either book, but a lot happens with the characters’ mindscapes. His books have been described as “super-elliptical pop-noir” and that’s about accurate. For Murakami fans, dazzled by his literary artistry in his books like Kafka On The Shore, The Windup Bird Chronicles, 1Q84 and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, this slim volume is a must read, to discover the making of a master.

Wind/Pinball

By Haruki Murakami

Published by: Alfred A. Knopf

Pages: 234

Trigger Mortis

The Name’s Bond

James Bond is not the only fictional character who has been granted a life after the death of his creator, but he must be the one who has been picked up by the most writers for a me-too Ian Fleming book.

Fleming passed away in 1964, since then, many authors have attempted a Bond book—among them Sebastian Faulks, Jeffery Deaver and William Boyd.  Now Anthony Horowitz has written Trigger Mortis, in which Bond is still the macho, chauvinistic, Cold War throwback. In this book, there is no attempt at political correctness—M is still a man, Russians and Koreans are the bad guys, Pussy Galore makes a reappearance and the new Bond girl is called Jeopardy Lane. Bond is still fussy about his breakfast, his drink and is cologne, is unashamedly sexist, but does not use the F word and is quite sympathetic towards a gay colleague. Redeeming features!

Horowitz does a competent job of imitating Fleming’s style and adds a lot of action sequences that will look good on screen. He also had access to some previously unpublished material by Fleming, which he seamlessly blends into his book. It’s set in the 1950s soon after Goldfinger(who finds a mention here, when his henchmen try to kill Pussy Galore in his style, by covering her with gold paint), so there are no fancy gizmos, but that doesn’t come in the way of creating a reasonably exciting plot about rockets and the evil scheme to bomb New York (which has disturbingly contemporary echoes).

Bond has to do all his impossible stunts like participating in a tough car race to prevent the assassination of a British driver by the Russian secret service, SMERSH, stealing crucial documents, jumping from a height into freezing water, getting out of a coffin buried in the earth and gallantly rescuing the ladies when required, and, of course, saving the world.  In all the mayhem there pops up a line about a Maserati engine sounding like “a vast sheet of calico endlessly torn,” or Bond noticing a woman’s resemblance to Jean Seberg (the Saint Joan actress). Who’d have thought he cared about cinema?

Jason Sin is a worthy adversary, the emotionless villain (he gets a respectful back story) who gets his thrills gambling with people’s lives. In comparison, Bond, who has no qualms about killing baddies, has the decency to spare the life of an innocent young man working for Sin. And that distinguishes one killing machine from another.

Bond fans probably won’t find much to complain about. Read it to figure out what the title means, or because you can’t put down a book that begins with the line: “It was that moment in the day when the world has had enough.”  Priceless!

Trigger Mortis

By Anthony Horowitz

Published by Orion

Pages: 320

The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra

Elephant Ahoy!

“On the day he was due to retire, Inspector Aswhin Chopra discovered that he had inherited an elephant.”  Thus begins Vaseem Khan’s book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, which serves the purpose of getting the reader to plunge right into it and end up being charmed.

For Inspector Chopra to get cracking –even though he is retired-- there has to be a death and there the case of a drowned boy. The scene of action is Mumbai (Delhi has already been claimed by Tarquin Hall’s wonderful Vish Puri series), and for those not familiar with the city, there’s a lot of masala, and also a couple of gaffes. Only in Mumbai could a baby elephant accompany a cop on a murder investigation. The sight of an elephant on the street, did, in fact inspire this book. Hopefully, it also kicks of a series of Baby Ganesh Agency novels.

The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra

By Vaseem Khan

Published by Hachette

Pages: 298

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

The Salman Effect

A new book by Salman Rushie is always reason to celebrate, even though he has never managed to surpass the creative, critical and commercial success of Midnight’s Children.  After that, he has been more in the news over the fatwa following The Satanic Verses, and the Page 3 kind of gossip about his girlfriends.

If every he does is compared to Midnight’s Children, then of course, nothing will ever measure up, but his latest, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights has that blend of fable, fantasy, mythology, social comment and sheer mischief that makes his work so exciting to read, even it is somewhat laborious to go through as this one it and almost impossible to summarise.  The suggestion is, not to read it on one go, but savour it s few pages at a time, and enjoy the prose, the play on words, the slow, unfolding process of a writer enjoying his work.

There is the now familiar magic realism, the love story of a female jinn or jinia called Dunia and a philosopher called Ibn Rushd, that spans several generations and two worlds, one inhabited by humans and the other by jinns.  The jinn universe is peaceful and happy, where the favourite pastime is sex;  humans are blessed (or cursed) with the ability to feel emotion, so are as capable of love as hate and violence.

Ibn Rushd’s rival is Ghazali who foments trouble in the name of religion, and they fight even after death; while they try to win arguments as their bodies disintegrate in their graves, four evil jinn Zabardast, Zumurrud, Ra’im Blood-Drinker and Shining Ruby, are causing mayhem on Earth and only Dunia can stop them.

Dunia gives birth to numerous offspring and their descendants (the Rushdi—no modesty here!) populate Earth as normal human beings, except that they have no earlobes, and have some hidden powers that they may be unaware of—like the foundling who can spot corruption (pity there’s not more of her).  When jinns enter the human world through a slit in the universe, there is chaos—one such storm leaves a placid gardener Geronimo Manezes floating a few inches above the ground.  (Geronimo is from Bandra, Mumbai, which makes Rushdie come up with some sharp observations about the city where he spent some years). Or Jimmy Kapoor, the Indian-American graphic designer who has created a superhero called Natraj Hero, finding a terrifying apparition, emerging out of a wormhole into his bedroom.

It’s an Arabian Nights (two years eight months and twenty-eight nights adds up to 1,001 nights) meets Bollywood meets graphic novel kind of vivid story telling that embraces the bizarre and leaves the reader to understand what remains unsaid, or make sense of the bizarre goings-on.  The novel is funny, absurd, provocative, outrageous and totally unpredictable…which is the least one can expect from Rushdie

Two Years Eight Months And Twenty-Eight Nights
By: Salman Rushdie
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 304

The Girl in the Spider’s Web

The ‘Girl’ Returns

Lisbeth Salander, who appeared in three bestselling books by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson is a heroine for our times.  Brilliant, brave, loyal and indestructible.

The writer passed away tragically young, and Salander fans all over the world were bereft.  But there is always a way keep a fictional character alive; if  Sherlock Holmes,  Hercule Poirot, James Bond and Jeeves can be resurrected, why not Salander?

Larsson’s father and brother commissioned David Lagercrantz to write the fourth installment of the Millennium series— The Girl in the Spider’s Web, translated into English by George Goulding. (The Millennium trilogy – which comprises The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest – sold more than 80 million copies worldwide, giving a major boost to Scandinavian crime fiction).

There will be debates whether this book is as good as Larsson’s, but with Salander around, there can never be a dull moment.  She appears a bit too late in the book, after it has been established that Mikael Blomkvist’s beloved magazineMillennium is in financial trouble and he is facing a professional slump that only a major scoop can pull him out of.

Meanwhile, renowned scientist Professor Frans Balder, who is working on an artificial super-intelligence programme, realizes he is in trouble and fears for his life. He has also rescued his autistic son, August, from the clutches of his greedy, abusive step-father and hopes to protect the child too. So he calls Blomkvist in the middle of the night, so that his story reaches the people.

But by the time Blomkvist reaches there, Balder has been shot dead, the sole witness being the son, who cannot speak.  As the cops and Blomkvist start to investigate, the only person who can help unravel the tangled mess is Lisbeth and her superhacking capabilities.

When there is major conspiracy involved the Americans have to be in it, as well as the Russians and the Swedish Secret Police.  When Salander enters the narrative, it is in her usual no-nonsense way. Her first brusque words to Blomkvist are, “Shut up and listen.”

Those who have read the earlier books would know that Salander survived a horrible childhood with a Russian gangster father, weak mother and an evil twin sister. She is now a black-clad, pierced and tattooed punk, whose idea of dealing with pain is inflicting more pain on herself.  She lives on junk food, keeps fit with boxing and treats bullet wounds like normal people would an insect bite.

She wants to avenge Balder’s murder, like she wants to right every wrong—she cannot bear to see women and children hurt.  (She breaks the fingers of a surgeon who molests a woman.) The only man she is somewhat close to is Blomkvist and she keeps him at a distance too, communicating with him by hacking his computer.

Salander takes a bullet meant for August and runs with him into hiding. The child somehow manages to let down his guard with her and reveals his mathematical genius, as well as amazing artistic talent.

Lagercrantz has followed Larsson’s style faithfully—tech jargon juxtaposed with shootouts and action.  His long descriptions of artificial intelligence slow the pace and make large tracts of the book boring to read, but there is nothing Salander can’t fix.

It’s a good thing she has been brought to life again, and fans can only hope Lagercrantz or other writers keep the franchise running.

The Girl In The Spider’s Web

By David Lagercrantz

Translated by George Goulding

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Pages: 403