A Midsummer's Equation

A Mystery

By: Keigo Higashino

Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan

Manabu Yukawa, the physicist known as "Detective Galileo," has traveled to Hariguara, a once-popular summer resort town that has fallen on hard times. He is there to speak at a conference on a planned underwater mining operation, which has sharply divided the town. One faction is against the proposed operation, concerned about the environmental impact on the area, known for its pristine waters. The other faction, seeing no future in the town as it is, believes its only hope lies in the development project.

The night after the tense panel discussion, one of the resort's guests is found dead on the seashore at the base of the local cliffs. The local police at first believe it was a simple accident—that he wandered over the edge while walking on unfamiliar territory in the middle of the night. But when they discover that the victim was a former policeman and that the cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning, they begin to suspect he was murdered, and his body tossed off the cliff to misdirect the police.

As the police try to uncover where Tsukahara was killed and why, Yukawa finds himself enmeshed in yet another confounding case of murder. In a series of twists as complex and surprising as any in Higashino's brilliant, critically acclaimed work, Galileo uncovers the hidden relationship behind the tragic events that led to this murder.

©2011, 2016 Keigo Higashino, Alexander O. Smith (P)2016 Macmillan Audio

And The Moral Of This Story Is.....

This story really began to hold my attention and interest about the halfway point. I took one star away from the Overall rating for that reason and because of the difficulty in understanding the different names which sounded very much alike. It would have added significantly to the story (for us English listeners) if all names had been in English or Americanized. Nevertheless, this story was a very good listen. It begins as if there are two completely disjointed Mysteries. However, the two murder mysteries are woven into one connected story. The ending is somewhat good but not exactly a "happy ever after" type ending but more of a mortality teaching moment. Sometimes it's best to consider the lesser of two evils in order to protect the most vulnerable. The mere fact that I am writing this review was motivated by my enjoyment of the story. This is a story that I would surely read again if not for the similar sounding names. The narration was excellent! P.J. Ochlan's voice and narration abilities serves this story well.

Japanese mystery

a lot of twists and turns but I enjoyed it. I will read another by this author

Brilliant with Great Ending

Brilliant with Great Ending. I like the subtlety and perspicacious of the lead character. The story shows how difficult it is to do the right thing under intricate circumstances.

Disappointed Dectective Galileo fan

Much of the narration is dialogue between the Professor and a young adolescent, Kyohei. I found it tedious and bogged down the first 2/4+ This requires the narrator to be voice of Kyohei, and his portrayal never sounded comfortable to my ear.

After Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint, I was keen to read book 3. The twist is ingenious but wasn’t reward enough for the time spent getting there.

In general, his characters are warmly thought out with intricate backstories and motivations, and these qualities are present here, but overall the novel felt flat.

Great Mystery

This one may be an acquired taste but I love Mr. Higashino's mystery novels. There is a certain clear prose (however it is best to let anyone reading that I love Japanese Literature translated to English) and an interesting mystery that is slowly revealed. There are some clues on the "how" but I only saw them in the end.

The reader is very good, managing to give voice to different genders and ages without visibly thinning his voice. Very good performance.

This one is highly recommended however it may come as dry to some.

Disappointing, but less than the 2nd book

I am a big fan of The Devotion of Suspect X. After finishing it and returning the library audiobook, I immediately searched for the last two.

I purchased the second book in excitement for more critical analysis only to find myself disappointed by the boring characters. Our two lead men are remain great IMO, and I liked the installment of the new, female, junior detective. But everyone else who make the ploy was dull dull dull. Yukawa is the saving grace who I held on to for the ending. I returned it, ashamedly.

The exact same experience happened listening to the last book of the Detective Galileo trilogy.
I have 4 hours left of the 11 hour audible, & I’m done. I’m returning it since I’ve been trudging through it when I hit the 8 hour mark.

Loved the twists

Something that I love from Higashino is that the plot intelligent and not completely predictable as in all the Galileo series. The strength of this detective story is the constant twists and the down to earth setting that makes you focus on the how's rather than on the crime itself.

If you are not familiar with the author you will find out that he does not need to fill the story with unnecessary gore and violence in order to make a compelling and interesting story. It's a whodunit mystery where you are presented with the stories of all actors; characters that can be real -not archetypes- and whose lives are affected by a murder You won't find action or crazy sociopaths here, instead you get a rather witty case where every twist confuses you a little and maintains your attention until the resolution.

A few twists

It is hard for for English speakers to keep the names straight. This is the third book of his I have read. Devotion of Suspect X was my favorite.

Preachy

This is the fourth book I have read written by this author and the weakest of all. His other books had a cadence and drew you into them. This one tried to hit you on the head.