Another green world

I was trying to think what I enjoy so much about Keigo Higashino. Lately I've been reading a lot of Japanese crime fiction. Whether the authors are writing in the 1950s or through to the 1980s, several elements recur. Small business, debt sharks and hostessing are often integral to the plot. I do not know if the fact of the works being translated into English benefits them by clarifying the prose but there is a cool distance to the writing which is reassuringly mid-century. I like this way of writing which is out of fashion in the West. And the plots bang, because they break the rules.

Higashino is a very productive author, which is to say he is very published. Writers write and the finished works pile up: few are lucky enough to get them all out there. His novels are not all perfect in every way. No artist is. I am reminded of an ex-colleague's comment on Elvis Presley movies: they're all good, but some are better than others. The two Higashino novels I find dazzling are Journey Under the Midnight Sun and Newcomer. Both mysteries comprise some of the parts mentioned above but each is structured in a different way. Sun sets up the puzzle before taking a long loop away from it and back. Newcomer turns the process of discovery inside-out, bringing us into the story from bystanders' point of view. Higashino's construction of the narrative demands faith from the reader and also patience. In other markets the gatekeepers worry 'you're not allowed to do that' and 'we need to see more' and 'the reader needs to know'. These works prove you can and we don't and the reader will be just fine.