Silent Parade

Detective Galileo, Book 4

By: Keigo Higashino

Narrated by: David Shih

Detective Galileo, Keigo Higashino's best-loved character from The Devotion of Suspect X, returns in Silent Parade, a complex and challenging mystery - several murders, decades apart, with no solid evidence.

A popular young girl disappears without a trace, her skeletal remains discovered three years later in the ashes of a burned-out house. There's a suspect and compelling circumstantial evidence of his guilt, but no concrete proof. When he isn't indicted, he returns to mock the girl's family. And this isn't the first time he's been suspected of the murder of a young girl; nearly 20 years ago he was tried and released due to lack of evidence. Detective Chief Inspector Kusanagi of the Homicide Division of the Tokyo Police worked both cases.

The neighborhood in which the murdered girl lived is famous for an annual street festival, featuring a parade with entries from around Tokyo and Japan. During the parade, the suspected killer dies unexpectedly. His death is suspiciously convenient, but the people with all the best motives have rock-solid alibis. DCI Kusanagi turns once again to his college friend, physics professor, and occasional police consultant Manabu Yukawa, known as Detective Galileo, to help solve the string of impossible-to-prove murders.

©2018 Keigo Higashino; Translation copyright 2021 by Giles Murray (P)2021 Tantor

Just a bit dizzing but really good just the same.

This was an intricate tale covering several crimes, and several criminals with a cascade of names. That was the dizzying part.
I finally downloaded the book in Kindle so I could see the names clearly. A very good finish to an interesting story and an enlightening visit to Japan.

Not my favorite

I still enjoyed it enough to finish but there was something lacking in this one. I usually like the way the pieces are there for you to figure out, but this one seemed like then information was just coming out of nowhere.

Great performance but recording has quality issues

In some sections there are background noises that are really distracting.

While I think it’s a good book, it’s not as good as the others. But I love the style, and how the author allows us to glimpse into the intricacies of another culture so well.

I wasn’t the most engaged with the mystery, but I think I like these books the most for how each character feels so real, and how you feel involved in their lives.

I wish there was no background noise as it really got annoying at times

The worst of Higashino's work

[No spoiler.] I read all Higashino’s past work and loved every one of them. My favorite is Newcomer and the TV adaptation was also very good. But this book truly disappoints me. First, the plot is convoluted. Higashino’s work always involves intricate plot that thrills the readers. But this book’s plot feels very tortured. Many Professor Yukawa’s theses feel like barely educated guesses and the probability that all of them panned out should be unbelievably low. Second, the professor is awfully “nosy” in this book. In the other books, he is more detached and acted like a consultant assisting his detective friend. In this book, however, he steps into the life of people involved even before the revenge murder took place. And the way he manipulates people to act the way he prefers is a bit chilling. He is a very smooth operator of the minds. Third, there is almost no likeable character in this whole book. Higashino spreads his ink too thin and nobody gets a decent build-up to tug the readers in. If you are a fan of Higashino, you had better avoid this one.

Big fan, not into this one.

Hard to say why I didn’t particularly like this book. The plot and twists were interesting but I had a hard time getting a sense of the individual characters and the writing itself seemed phoned in — so many cliches (though that could have been the fault of the translation). I like Higashino but this one didn’t really do it for me.

Rare miss for Higashino

I'm a big fan of his. Unfortunately, this novel just didn't do it for me. There are two mysteries here, who killed a promising young singer? And, who killed the person suspected of killing her? More emphasis is placed on the second one. But since he's such an objectionable person (even if he might not be guilty of murder), there's no pressing urgency to solve it. And the first murder is solved not by the accumulation of facts by Yukawa/Galileo, but by confession that borders on a deus ex machina. No question, Higashino has a great track record, and I'll eagerly read his next translated work, but this, unfortunately, was a disappointment. Also disappointing was Shih's narration. I've given all his other performances 5 stars, and while he's fine reading description, many of his characters just didn't sound right. Some felt too bombastic, others too mousy, and so on.

Diet AgathaC

If you are reading the reviews here, you may want to check and make sure you have read all the Detective Galileo books before this one.
I just finished the final book in this series and I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Readers from the US or Europe may find the stories a bit strange at times, and this is due to some cultural differences I had to learn about. For example, suspects in these stories don’t seem to ever even consider “remaining silent” or “asking for a lawyer”. It is finally referenced in the last book that most people dont know they have the right to remain silent or leave an interrogation if they are not under arrest. So most of the books are detectives talking with each other and then the suspects, and the case is unraveled naturally. Another example people might find odd are the sentences given for crimes like murder. It seems that you will either get the death sentence or serve no more than 10 years. I know here in the US especially that seems low for a crime involving a death. But the books are well written, the twists are twisty, and the characters are good, even if u end up hating some of them.

Not his best

I read most of the Higashino books, some are great some are just alright. This one is a bit slow and not that intriguing. I gave up about half way. It is nice in terms of the descriptions of Japanese life, but as a thriller the story is not the best. The narrator is OK but not my favorite.