Named one of the best books of 2017 by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Literary Hub. Winner of the Best Japanese Crime Fiction of the Year Award. One of Vulture’s 10 Best Thriller Books of 2017. “Already a bestseller in Japan and the U.K., this cinematic crime novel suffused with fascinating cultural details follows a police department … cultural details follows a police department reinvestigating a chilling kidnapping that stumped them 14 years earlier.” —Entertainment Weekly, The Must List
THE NIGHTMARE NO PARENT COULD ENDURE. THE CASE NO DETECTIVE COULD SOLVE. THE TWIST NO READER COULD PREDICT.
For five days, the parents of a seven-year-old Japanese schoolgirl sat and listened to the demands of their daughter’s kidnapper. They would never learn his identity. And they would never see their daughter alive again.
Fourteen years later, the mystery remains unsolved. The police department’s press officer–Yoshinobu Mikami, a former detective who was involved in the original case and who is now himself the father of a missing daughter–is forced to revisit the botched investigation. The stigma of the case known as “Six Four” has never faded; the police’s failure remains a profound source of shame and an unending collective responsibility.
Mikami does not aspire to solve the crime. He has worked in the department for his entire career, and while he has his own ambitions and loyalties, he is hoping simply to reach out to the victim’s family and to help finally put the notorious case to rest. But when he spots an anomaly in the files, he uncovers secrets he never could have imagined. He would never have even looked if he’d known what he would find.
An award-winning phenomenon in its native Japan–more than a million copies sold, and the winner of the Best Japanese Crime Fiction of the Year award–and already a critically celebrated top-ten bestseller in the U.K., Hideo Yokoyama’s Six Four is an unforgettable novel by a literary master at the top of his form. It is a dark and riveting plunge into a crime, an investigation, and a culture like no other.
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“Six Four” by Hideo Yokoyama,translated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies, is a complex and captivating novel. Readers get vivid picture of the people, the events, the politics, and the balancing act that goes on continually in a police department in Japan. It is a universal story of crime, family, conflict, and duty. Yoshinobu Mikami is not thrilled with his move from the Criminal Investigation Division to the press office. There is unrest in the police department and in the press corps, and he is under attack on all sides. This is the chronicle of a man struggling to support his family, manage his personal trauma, and do his job. Readers get to know him well by observing his interactions with others, following his thinking, and uncovering clues when he does.
Vivid descriptions put the reader right into the scene. “Outside, the snow had turned to sleet. Three figures stood breathing chalky clouds in the dark of the parking area.” Yokoyama fills every page with everyday life, job stress, political pressure, and moral dilemmas. Every word contributes to the total picture. The characters are multi-faceted and complex; throughout the narrative, they display a sense of pride, history, duty, and honor. There is a convenient cast of characters at the front of the book to help readers keep track of names and jobs.
A fourteen-year old kidnapping case, Six Four, is still unsolved. Out of all the cases of kidnapping and murder that had happened since, it was the only one in which the perpetrator was still at large. Were mistakes made? What was a lie and what was truth? The toll this case had taken on everyone leaps from the pages, even after fourteen years.
The pace is deliberate but steady at first. When the Six Four case comes to the forefront, clues emerge, issues become clear, and pieces fall into place like rocks emerging from a receding tide. Six Four engulfs everything and everyone. The story gains momentum, proceeds at a breakneck speed, and comes to a frantic, desperate, and shocking end.
The name of the case and book come from the year of the crime, Six Four. In Japan, the name of the era changes when the emperor dies. The new era, Heisei, started on January 8 1989, the day after emperor Hirohito died. A man kidnapped and murdered a seven-year-old girl in the sixty-fourth year of Showa, a period that lasted for only a week, and disappeared into Heisei when the body was found. The code name “Six Four” was a pledge that the case did not belong to the first year of Heisei. The police would drag the kidnapper right back into that final year of Showa.
“Six Four” is a glimpse into to this culture for the outsider. There are multiple cultural references, descriptions, mannerisms, and national markers. This is not a story that could take place somewhere else with just a few name changes.
I highly recommend this book. I was captivated by the characters at the start, and by the end, I was frantically turning pages.
A GoodReads friend sent me this book 1 and 1/2 years ago and I put off reading it because it is 635 pages long(643 if you count the author interview). It is more focused on Japanese society than the mystery. The first 500 pages are about infighting/power struggles within the Japanese police and their difficult relationship with the press. The unsolved kidnapping/murder of a seven year old girl is always hovering in the background, and does not come into focus until near the end for a stunning, unexpected climax. The case is known as “Six Four.”
The narrator and main character is Mikami, press director for Prefecture D, a regional police headquarters. Mikami has 3 people working under him. Prefecture D has several hundred police.
By way of contrast, Buffalo, NY, with about 700 police, has 1 PR person.
Mikami is caught in the middle between competing sides in the power struggle and between the press and his superiors demand that he withhold information that the press wants.
If you like a traditional mystery, this may not be for you. I started reading this book 6 months ago, and put it down, because of the interminable infighting/press demands.
This book was a bestseller in Japan and then in the UK, where my GoodReads friend bought it. Thank You Nancy!!
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.