I recently had the pleasure of reading "Silent Parade" by Keigo Higashino, and it was a thrilling experience from start to finish. Higashino, known for his mastery of the crime genre, once again proves why he is a master storyteller.

"Silent Parade" follows the story of Detective Galileo as he investigates a perplexing murder case that takes place during a local festival. The narrative is filled with suspense, intrigue, and unexpected twists that kept me engaged and guessing until the very end. Higashino's ability to construct a complex plot and maintain a steady pace is commendable.

One of the things I loved most about this book is the attention to detail. Higashino has a knack for creating vivid and realistic settings, allowing readers to immerse themselves fully in the story. The atmospheric descriptions of the festival and its traditions added depth and authenticity to the narrative, making it feel like I was right there alongside the characters.

The characters themselves are well-developed and multifaceted. Detective Galileo is a compelling protagonist, with his sharp mind and intuitive nature. His interactions with other characters were intriguing, as each one had their own secrets and motivations. Higashino masterfully unravels their complexities, gradually revealing their true nature as the plot unfolds.

The pacing of the book is excellent, with each chapter ending on a cliffhanger that compels you to keep turning the pages. The author skillfully weaves together multiple storylines, creating a web of mystery that kept me guessing until the final revelation. The resolution of the murder case was satisfying and unexpected, tying up all loose ends neatly.

While "Silent Parade" is a fantastic read, I do feel that at times the intricate plot may be overwhelming for some readers. The abundance of characters and their various connections can be a bit confusing, requiring close attention to keep track of the intricate details. However, if you enjoy a complex and thought-provoking mystery, this book is definitely worth your time.

In conclusion, "Silent Parade" is an enthralling thriller that showcases Keigo Higashino's talent for crafting intricate plots and compelling characters. With its atmospheric setting, suspenseful narrative, and surprising twists, this book is a must-read for fans of the crime genre. I highly recommend it to anyone seeking a captivating and intelligent mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end.

I enjoyed this book well enough, as I have enjoyed other works by Keigo Higashino. However, I do have to agree with many other readers that the pacing was a bit slow and made it difficult for me to keep going. That being said, some readers may enjoy the slower pace and the focus on the various characters. I think this is a book that has to really be tried to find out if you’ll truly enjoy it.

This was an interesting detective novel but it moved a little slowly for my usual taste. It took a while for anything major to happen.

I received an eARC of the book from NetGalley/Minotaur Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a huge admirer of Higashino's works and this book did not disappoint. This is a fast paced murder mystery with memorable characters and easily accessible language. The reader is left wanting for nothing more. I love how intricately interwoven all the characters are and how the story unravels before the readers' eyes.

The non-traditional detective Manabu Yukawa from this book series uses physics and scientific explanations to explain his theories (which can get nerdy and I love it). This book had well developed characters and a well developed murder mystery.

This is the third book in the series but each book can be treated as a standalone as each one focuses on a different murder. I look forward to read the future works from this author.

One of the longest awaited translations for mystery and detective fiction fans, "Silent Parade", by Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray, is the fourth translated book in the "Detective Galileo" series, and the eighth book in the series in the original Japanese. As fans of Higashino's fiction would know, summizaring one of his detective novel's plot is almost impossible without giving away too much information, so I won't even attempt it.

It will suffice to say this novel brings back loved characters from the previous books, like Professor Yukawa Manabu, and Detectives Kusanagi and Detective Utsumi, but also spends a lot of time building up new characters relevant only to this novel's specific mysery. In that way, in terms of plot and characters, "Silent Parade" is very similar to "The Devotion of Suspect X", which is one of Higashino's most loved books. It also felt similar to "A Midsummer's Equation" in terms of the relationships Professor Yukawa develops with some of the people involved in the case.

I am definitely very biased, as Keigo Higashino is one of my favorite authors, but I have no hesitation to say I loved "Silent Parade", and it is a great addition to the already translated novels from the Detective Galileo series. I hope more of the novels from the series will soon join the translated ranks, and meanwhile I am eagerly waiting for Higashino's upcoming Detective Kaga novel in translation, "Death in Tokyo", coming out in December 2022.

Silent Parade is part of a series featuring a physics professor who assists the police, but it easily works as a standalone novel. The cast is large, the case encompasses crimes in the present and 20 years ago, and the pace is (a little too) leisurely. In trying to solve the latest crime, “Professor Galileo” quickly comes up with an explanation involving an outlandish method of murder. This is so strange as to feel like a last-chapter revelation in an Agatha Christie or John Dickson Carr mystery, but it’s just the beginning of an solution that gets more and more convoluted as the book progresses. There are abundant twists and misdirections, some more obvious than others. Fans of the genre know that excessive emphasis on A means everyone should take a closer look at B. The Japanese cultural context provides extra interest for American readers of this translation.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for a digital advance review copy.

Of Keigo Higashiono's 66 published works, only 9 books have been translated into English. So, I was delighted to hear that there was a new book coming out in translation in late 2021. Silent Parade was worth the wait.

The novel features Detective Galileo, a fictional character who is to the Tokyo police force, what Sherlock Holmes was to Scotland Yard. “Galileo” is the nickname of Prof. Manabu Yukawa, a physicist at the Imperial University in Tokyo. He is an astute reader of people as well. (Science history buffs will recognize that the sleuth’s name is a nod to theoretical physicist Hideki Yukawa, Japan’s first Nobel laureate who won the award in 1949.)

Saori Namiki, a teenaged singer, beloved star in a smalltown parade, disappeared, three years earlier, and her remains have been found in a burned-down house. The same house contained the body of the stepmother of Kanichi Hasunuma, the prime suspect in the murder of a 12-year-old girl, two decades earlier. Charges were brought against Hasunuma, but were ultimately dismissed, leaving him free to commit the second unrelated murder as well -- this the townspeople are convinced of because he has showed up at the Namiki family diner and has harassed the good-looking girl despite being told to lay off.

The townspeople, who believe Hasunuma did it, band together to kill him, in a plot not unlike the old Agatha Christie classic, "Murder on The Orient Express." Oh, how well they coordinate, and how little of a chance they stand against Prof. Yukawa/Inspector Galileo. This is not one of the sleuth's best outings -- the narrative is a little rambling -- but nevertheless, the mystery holds your attention. There are twists and turns, and then some. Be prepared to learn some science as the good professor solves the mystery.

Read, enjoy and wait for the next Detective Galileo mystery.

Thank s is the first book I have read in this series and I really liked it. I will be seeking others. This is a murder mystery with a large cast of characters. It is atmospheric of the Japanese culture with a very likeable detective. Just when I thought I had it all figured out I was surprised with a twist.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Detective Galileo, Keigo Higashino’s best-loved character from The Devotion of Suspect X is back!

The story is about solving the mystery of the disappearance of a beautiful young girl on the verge of getting famous as a singer whose skeletal remains are discovered three years later. The police and the detectives are having a hard time solving this mystery even though all the obvious clues are available. There is a main suspect but without a confession and without hard evidence, the police have no choice but to release him and then the unthinkable happens; the main suspect gets murdered. So who is behind all these murders?

Enter Detective Galileo, professor of physics and unofficial consultant to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. He unravels impossible crimes and is called upon when a case is problematic, and this case certainly fits the bill. Detective Galileo’s investigation is focused, methodical, and comprehensive; the smallest details are investigated.

A quality police procedural, with a clever plot with many suspects with a motive to kill the victim. The author does a fantastic job of creating the world. This is a compelling page turner.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I just finished reading this book--review delayed due to our daughter's illness. Characters are well defined--I especally liked the female detective. Clever plotting --braiding of old crime, new crime lots of motives--the setting in small town Japan very effective--would have liked a bit more description since I am not familiar but then again, the basic details are the same for any small town--close-knit community--did they try to punish a killer or not? IS it moral for them to do so?
Get ready to put your emotions on a roller coaster and if you are a person who tallies red herrings, you will need a big pad of paper and pencil for this one--great writing.
I hope to read more by this author!

“Silent Parade” is part of the Detective Galileo Series, but many significant things unfold before readers actually meet him. A man was charged with murder. He was guilty, plain, and simple, and yet he insisted he did not do it. Without a confession and without hard evidence, the police had no choice but to release him. Some time later, he dies during an annual parade. Surely this death is not just a coincidence. The obvious suspects, the family of the murder victim, all have ironclad alibis; the Investigation hits a brick wall. It requires the skills of Professor Manabu Yukawa, better known as Detective Galileo, professor of physics and unofficial consultant to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. He unravels impossible crimes and is called upon when a case is problematic, and that certainly describes this case perfectly. While his theories may sometimes seem preposterous on the surface, in the end they are intuitive and correct.
People are the focus of this story, and Higashino constructs a narrative with extensive background information about all of them, their past and present activities as well as their involvement in previous cases; after all, one of these people is a murderer. Every reaction, thought, and deed is meticulously documented, both the important and the mundane. Even the geography is described in detail. Detective Galileo’s investigation is focused, methodical, and comprehensive; the smallest details are investigated. What people believe to be the truth and what the actual truth is are not necessarily the same thing; perceiving the difference is the key to solving the crime.
“Silent Parade” starts with what seems to be a perfect crime. The every detail of the murder is intricately planned and executed. The perpetrator thought of everything except Detective Galileo. Like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, one after another, he slotted the pieces into place, and they all fit perfectly. I received a review copy of “Silent Parade” from Keigo Higashino, Minotaur Books, and Macmillan Publishing. For those not familiar with the series, a handy reference of the characters and their jobs is included. Every book in the series is compelling and surprising. Detective Galileo always looks at things from a different point of view.

Silent Parade is Keigo Higashino's fourth novel featuring physicist Manabu Yukawa, dubbed Detective Galileo for his brilliant work as a police consultant.

Much of what happens centers on a family restaurant owned by the Namikis. Their elder daughter Saori disappeared three years before.

Soon there's an obvious suspect but only circumstantial evidence. What follows reminds me of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. Here the suspected killer dies during an annual street festival.

DCI Kusanagi turns to Dr. Yukawa for help. Of course, he does figure it out and there's quite a twist of an ending. Silent Parade is all about the ripples that spread out from an act of violence, highly recommended!

Detective Galileo has done it again! There’s a reason this was an Edgar Awards Finalist.

The pacing, first of all, is absolutely enviable, and the characters are neither cliche nor impossible. I could find myself in this story, and that’s always a win for me.

I have not read every Galileo novel, but I was not lost at any point in this story. It was all laid out so perfectly, and I was a fan from the beginning.

I hope they continue to translate these novels.

SILENT PARADE by Keigo Higashino is book 4 in the Detective Galileo series by this award-winning Japanese author. Higashino's work is routinely highly rated and praised and I had already enjoyed The Newcomer a few years ago. However, I found SILENT PARADE to be rather slow even though the premise of the story was unique and held my attention for a while. Booklist describes this novel as "leisurely paced" while Library Journal and Publishers Weekly gave it starred reviews. Tokyo Chief Inspector Kusanagi returns with his friend (and amateur detective) physics professor Manabu Yukawa to try to solve a locked room puzzle: Was a murderer murdered? How? And by whom? Which of many suspects had the best opportunity and motive? Or were they working in cooperation? This translation provides a lengthy list of characters and numerous twists and turns as Yukawa, employing scientific reasoning, develops and refines a variety of hypotheses. Try it for yourself and decide.

Published in Japan in 2018; published in translation by Minotaur Books on December 14, 2021

American mysteries tend to feature outlandish plots or brilliant but unrealistic forensic scientists or tough guys who solve the mysteries with their fighting skills or self-aggrandizing protagonists who can’t stop reminding the reader how much they care about victims. The age of clever but plausible plots and deduction that doesn’t depend on CSI gadgetry has largely passed. Fortunately, readers who enjoy the challenge of puzzling out the solution to a complex mystery can turn to Japanese mystery writers. Whodunit and how’d-he-do-it plots are plentiful in Japan, where fictional detectives use their wits rather than their weapons or crime labs to solve mysteries.

Saori Namiki is a teenager working as a waitress in her parents’ restaurant when she begins taking voice lessons from Naoki Niikura. His wife Rumi encourages Saori to pursue a career in music. Saori sees the appeal of pursuing stardom, but she also enjoys being pursued by one of the restaurant’s customers, Tomoya Takagaki.

Saori disappears one evening without explanation. Three years later, a house burns to the ground. Saori’s body is discovered in the rubble. The body of the old woman who owns the house is also discovered, but she died years before Saori, who died soon after she disappeared.

The old woman’s son, Kanichi Hasunuma, was a customer at the Namiki restaurant who took an unwholesome interest in Saori. Hasunuma’s ties to the house and to Saori make him the prime murder suspect. Two decades earlier, Hasunuma was suspected of killing a 12-year-old girl. Despite abundant circumstantial evidence, Hasunuma resisted the cultural urge to confess, having learned from his cop father that convictions are difficult to win without the suspect’s confession. True to his father’s teachings, Hasunuma avoided a conviction and even received compensation for his detention.

The investigation of Saori’s murder is led by Detective Chief Inspector Kusanagi of the Toykyo Metropolitan Police. Kusanagi was a young detective when he worked on the first case against Hasunuma. Kusanagi hopes he can bring Hasunuma to justice this time. The novel’s true star, however, is Kusanagi’s college friend, Professor Manabu Yukawa, a/k/a Professor Galileo, a character who first appeared in The Devotion of Suspect X and has solved crimes in three other novels, including Silent Parade.

While Saori’s death is the novel’s initial focus, the fun starts with Hasunuma’s death. Was he murdered? If so, how? He appears to have died from natural causes, but Yukawa isn’t so sure. If he was killed, how did it happen? Yukawa propounds one hypothesis after another. Kusanagi dutifully sends officers to look for evidence that confirms or refutes the evolving theory. Many of the obvious suspects have an alibi involving a parade, complete with helium balloons, that the entire community attended.

Once the police settle on a likely means of Hasunuma's death, the mystery requires the killer to be identified. Revenge is the obvious motive, but Saori was beloved by her family, their friends, her lover, and pretty much the entire neighborhood. Just when it seems that the police have identified a killer, Yukawa mentions a fact that isn’t consistent with their theory and forces the investigation to reboot. By the novel’s end, everything the police (and reader) think they know is cast into doubt. The truth is out there, but like any good scientist, Yukawa knows that the truth is found by accounting for every fact rather than jumping to conclusions that are consistent with only some of the facts.

Keigo Higashino’s complex plots are among the best in modern mysteries. Nearly every character in Silent Parade, apart from Yukawa and the cops, is a potential suspect. Higashino gives each character, from Hasunuma to Saori to the various suspects, a sufficiently detailed background to explain why they behave as they do. The unfailing politeness of everyone except Hasunuma makes Silent Parade a relaxing departure from American crime fiction. Mystery fans who appreciate a challenge should appreciate Higashino's work.

RECOMMENDED

In the mood for a marvelous mystery ? Give #SilentParade by Keigo Higashino a whirl. Let me confess. I’ve seen nothing but accolades for Mr. Higashino’s previous books but #SilentParade is the first one that I read and now I understand what the fuss is about : Higashino is a born story teller. In #SilentParade we have two murders, a vile perpetrator, a criminal justice system unable to make charges stick, and a whole entourage of characters that have reason for vengeance. What is missing is the reliance of red herrings found in most mysteries that move the plot along ( and the reason I’m not usually a traditional mystery fan). What #SilentParade does offer is a terrific ensemble of characters who are seamlessly woven into each other’s lives as the plot magically matures to its logical conclusion. Kudos to Mr. Higashino for making this daunting task seemingly effortless. For me the only mystery that remains is where I’ll find the time to read Higashino’s earlier works.

Keigo Higashino is a master at mystery writing. In another Galileo series book, , Physicist Manabu Yukawa uses his detecting skills to solve two cold cases of murder. In the frustration the families feel for two young, murdered girls, and feeling powerless for judicial action, they search for ways they can bring the murderer to justice. As often, I feel Japanese mysteries to have stilted language. I felt the story could have moved at a faster clip, but Higashino is painstakingly detailed in setting the stage for the final moments. I most enjoyed the distinction made between American and Japanese justice as well as the sense that is brought forward in the book of Japanese culture.

Engrossing locked room mystery that unfolds slowly but with lots of clues that will keep you guessing. Shades of Agatha Christie and Murder on the Orient Express, and Professor Yugawa will definitely teach you some things about science!

Keigo Higashino writes masterpieces that you unravel delicately, thread by thread, becoming more enamored as you work your way through. Silent Parade was another brilliant work, with complex and interesting characters, and an unsolvable murder. Every time I get the chance to read his novels, I am delighted and this was another 5 star book!

My recommendation: make it the first book you read in 2022 and start your reading year off on the best possible foot!

I adore Detective Galileo! Reading these books just feels cozy in a way.

In this story we have a case from Kusanagi's past where the guilty party got away because of flaws in the justice system and a similar, more recent case with links to to that killer. And then the suspect involved in both cases dies. While that sounds (and is a little) convoluted, Higashino weaves the threads of the story together masterfully.

I highly recommend this series to fans of police procedurals and murder mysteries, especially if you prefer those without excessive descriptions of violence. While this is the 9th in the series, it is only the 4th to be translated and can act as a standalone, though you'll miss some of the depth of Yukawa and Kusanagi's friendship.