Higashino is one of Japan’s best-known novelists, and I’ve read and enjoyed many of his books. The translations retain the intricacies of social customs, while his plotting is diverse and engaging.

While the others I’ve read have featured either Detective Galileo (The Devotion of Suspect X) or the intricate mind of Kyoichiro Saga (Malice), Guilt brings homicide detective Godai of Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police to the case of a murdered lawyer.

Kensuke Shiraishi’s body has been found on a riverbank, and after much detecting, Godai finds an older man named Tatsuro Kuraki is involved. Then a strange turn of events cause Kuraki, who at first claimed only minimal knowledge of the dead, to confess to not only his killing, but that of a cold case murder twenty years before.

Despite being congratulated that he has solved two cases at once, Godai fears Kuraki’s confession doesn’t ring true, and continues to investigate, all the while facing stubborn resilences from the man in jail, whose son takes up his own parellel investigation.

Both men will delve into the history of the deceased men, as well as the man who claims to have killed them, with surprising results.

There is a tension that rises as the reader sees what Godai sees–an unraveling of lies and half-trrths, until a final, surprising truth is attained.

Guilt and redemption are the two main themes explored in this highly readable novel.