Chapter 45 commentary

Shinta Nishikami (literary critic) On September 27, 1997, the Yomiuri Theater in Yurakucho, Tokyo was very lively.To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Japan Mystery Writers Association, the literati drama "Twenty Faces of a Monster" will be held here.I came to the theater hall on the top floor of the shopping mall 30 minutes before the opening, and saw the audience anxiously waiting for the opening lined up in a long snake, with no end in sight.Presumably, more viewers have watched this interesting drama within a drama through TV broadcast. The curtain opened, and the reasoning writers were rehearsing.Only the first half of the script has been completed, and the actors have not yet been finalized.Kita Kenzo, chairman of the Mystery Writers Association, and Osawa Zaichang competed to play the leading role Kogoro Akechi. The prompter Miyuki Miyabe struggled to mediate between the two, and the scene was chaotic.The script finally made it to the anxious producer Motohiko Izawa.Just when everyone was gearing up and preparing to do a big job, the script suddenly disappeared out of thin air, and the long laughter of the strange man with twenty faces came from afar, which was shocking.The above is the gist of this literati drama.The performance lineup is very large, with a total of forty-two "amateur actors" participating.Mr. Makoto Tsuji, who wrote the script, worked hard to arrange the most suitable roles for each "actor".

Since this is a play within a play, multiple writers "actors" play the role of themselves.However, there are two writers who play characters from their own novels.One is Kaoru Kitamura, who plays rakugo actor Motoshi Sakuratei, who is very good at solving the mysteries hidden in common sense.The other is Keigo Higashino who played the role of the rare and unparalleled famous detective Tianxia Daigoro. Daigoro Tenka, who appeared on the stage that day, was wearing a Scottish velvet plaid jacket, a white scarf around his head, and a cane in his hand. He looked extraordinary.The world's number one detective really lived up to his reputation, and the few words he said casually implied mystery.The tall and tall Mr. Higashino has an elegant temperament, and he never has the domineering "No. 1 in the world" when getting along with him on weekdays, but he interprets this role vividly.Not only is there great skill in gestures and gestures, but even the pronunciation of words is clear and loud, which really surprised me.Mr. Higashino said in "The Complete Record of Twenty Faces of a Monster" published by Guangwenshe: "This is the first time I have been on stage. When I was in kindergarten, I had the opportunity to play a dog in a children's play, but I I overslept and failed to act. Asking a person like me to recite a long line is simply cruel torture. If I still can’t recite it when it’s time for the official performance, I can only resort to the methods I used to do when I was a child.” Having said that , his performance is actually realistic and steady, which is wonderful.

Of course, Keigo Higashino has shown even more amazing talent in novel creation.In 1985, Higashino, who was only 27 years old, won the 31st Edogawa Ranpo Award for his novel, and entered the literary world in one fell swoop.The novel tells about a murder in a closed room in a girls' high school.The subsequent sister chapter "Graduation" describes a murder case involving seven college students.The protagonist of this work, college student Kyoichiro Kaga, changed from a teacher to a criminal policeman in several subsequent novels, becoming one of the important characters in the Higashino series.

Since Higashino was only 27 years old when he first started out, he was labeled as a "youth mystery writer" for granted.Accepting "O Dove! " magazine (March 1997), he once said: "When I was writing, I was only 26 years old. School is the world I am most familiar with. I feel that I have the ability to grasp the subject matter of school." But he himself was not satisfied with these first few literary debuts: "They sometimes make me feel ashamed, and I just want to forget about them." However, in my opinion, the final work of this batch of novels "The Murder Case of Student Street" takes the depression and struggle of youth as the theme, and describes in detail the indifference and anxiety of the young people in the growing period facing the future, as well as their ironic daily life.This is a masterpiece, enough to establish Higashino's position in the literary world.

Since then, Keigo Higashino has created a large number of works with different styles, such as "Sleeping Forest", which describes the love and hatred in the world of classical ballet, and the series of novels "Spray Boy Detective Team" with the theme of alpine skiing competitions and the stage of Osaka civilian residential areas. "Wait, completely removed the hat of "Youth Mystery Writer".In recent years, he has written "The Boy Who Manipulated the Rainbow", "A Love Story in a Parallel World", and other works. He has dabbled in suspense, science fiction, social realism and other fields, and his creative path has become wider and wider.

In addition, the serial murder case that occurred in a closed space is a theme that Keigo Higashino has been trying since the early days of creation, such as, , and so on.The aforementioned Oichigoro Tenka, played by Higashino himself, is the protagonist of the series "The Code of a Detective". This set of works has a meticulous layout and interlocking plots, giving readers the pleasure of reading like cracking a code.Another important work "Who Killed Her" returns to the mode of traditional mystery novels.There are only two suspects in the whole book, and all the clues are presented in front of readers, but the ending is full of doubts, which makes people think about it.

This book consists of seven short stories that were published in the magazine "Novel Gems".Except for "The Mystery of the Wedding Photo", the other six novels are all narrated in the first person. I lent my apartment to a buddy on a date.One morning when I came home, I found a strange woman lying on the bed—"The Sleeping Woman". I was cornered by the criminal police and broke into the house of "that man".It was him, it was his wrong judgment that brought me down to where I am today——"Let Me Hear Your Judgment Again". My "workaholic" boss died from a blow to the head in a locked break room.Everyone thinks that the robot is out of control - "Until Death".

"Did you kill my daughter Hiroko?" I grabbed my new wife's neck and asked forcefully.Who on earth caused Hongzi's tragic death——"Honeymoon Trip". An old photo album brings back the past thirteen years ago.Yusuke and I traveled separately in the Tohoku region.I concealed from Yusuke my horrible and strange experience on top of a lighthouse.He also came to the lighthouse - "Above the Lighthouse". Zhimei received a good news letter from a friend, but the photo attached to the letter was a group photo of strangers.Tomomi was worried and came to Kanazawa, the hometown of her friend - "The Mystery of the Wedding Photo".

My wife and I were unfortunately confronted by robbers while traveling in Costa Rica and almost lost our lives.An inconspicuous button battery cover helped us find the real culprit - "Cold Rain in Costa Rica". Although these seven stories are plain and simple, they are vivid and compact, and they give full play to the advantages of short stories, which shows that Dongye also has a lot of experience in writing short stories.He has always maintained a strong creative motivation, constantly trying new styles and themes, which must be full of difficulties and struggles that we cannot imagine.However, the pain of the writer is precisely the happiness of the reader.I sincerely look forward to Higashino continuing to bring us exciting and excellent works.