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    A Midsummer's Equation: A Detective Galileo Mystery
    A Midsummer's Equation: A Detective Galileo Mystery
    A Midsummer's Equation: A Detective Galileo Mystery
    Audiobook11 hours

    A Midsummer's Equation: A Detective Galileo Mystery

    Written by Keigo Higashino

    Narrated by P.J. Ochlan

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Manabu Yukawa, the physicist known as "Detective Galileo," has traveled to Hariguara, a once-popular summer resort town that has fallen on hard times. He is there to speak at a conference on a planned underwater mining operation, which has sharply divided the town. One faction is against the proposed operation, concerned about the environmental impact on the area, known for its pristine waters. The other faction, seeing no future in the town as it is, believes its only hope lies in the development project.

    The night after the tense panel discussion, one of the resort's guests is found dead on the seashore at the base of the local cliffs. The local police at first believe it was a simple accident—that he wandered over the edge while walking on unfamiliar territory in the middle of the night. But when they discover that the victim was a former policeman and that the cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning, they begin to suspect he was murdered, and his body tossed off the cliff to misdirect the police.

    As the police try to uncover where Tsukahara was killed and why, Yukawa finds himself enmeshed in yet another confounding case of murder. In a series of twists as complex and surprising as any in Higashino's brilliant, critically acclaimed work, Galileo uncovers the hidden relationship behind the tragic events that led to this murder.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateFeb 23, 2016
    ISBN9781427264527
    A Midsummer's Equation: A Detective Galileo Mystery
    Author

    Keigo Higashino

    Born in Osaka and currently living in Tokyo, Keigo Higashino is one of the most widely known and bestselling novelists in Japan. He is the winner of the Edogawa Rampo Prize (for best mystery) and the Mystery Writers of Japan, Inc. Prize (for best mystery), among others. His novels are translated widely throughout Asia.

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    Reviews for A Midsummer's Equation

    4/5

    117 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      After having absolutely loved the first two books in this series, I’ll confess when I started this one it didn’t grab me immediately.

      Different narrator from the first two audiobooks but that didn’t bother me. Still doing a great job with all the characters and voices.

      But, it seemed that characters I thought I knew, were not acting consistently. The mystery also seemed rather simply to guess at the framework.

      So, I was a little disappointed but I kept going because it wasn’t boring or bad writing. I still liked it, I just wasn’t blown away by it.

      That changed with the final plot twist. When all the reasons for behavior that seemed out of character suddenly made sense. And I was blown away! The reveal was a master stroke with so much heart, so much calculation and so much symmetry.
    • 5/5
      There's nothing quite like Keigo Higashino in how he weaves the characters meandering hobbies and tangents and make it a cohesive work. The tone is also something unique to Keigo where he can write wholesome humanity and yet still maintain the mystery and dread.
    • 5/5
      Intriguing tale that fully kept my interest. Also, very natural feeling translation.
    • 5/5
      I have enjoyed Keigo Higashino ever since reading Naoko. The one thing I really enjoyed about A Midsummer's Equation is that it is a Who-dunnit as opposed to Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint which are How-dunnits. He lays enough clues as the story went on, that as a reader, I suspected who the killer was and was well rewarded. I highly recommend this book.
    • 5/5
      This is another excellent book in the "Detective Galileo" series. The book focused on the history of the case and the reasons for the murder. Not all murders are simple, as this book amply demonstrated. What sets this book apart from the others is the conclusion. When he found the culprit, "Detective Galileo" chose not to expose the culprit to the police. Humanity won, and sometimes this is essential. The storytelling is magnificent, and I could not put the book down.
    • 3/5
      3.5? Interesting perspective. Jumped uncharacteristically into the middle of the series. Not your usual mystery. Lots of science. I think the 3.5 vs. 4 is all down to the killer. I didn't want this person to be the killer and that really knocked off points. It should not have. The mystery is very good. Personal taste took off the .5! Sorry.
    • 3/5
      I keep returning to these Higashino Keigo mysteries for some reason. They're quick reads and push me along with their short chapters that incrementally reveal relevant details. However, I am always a bit disappointed by the end. The motivations of the characters in this novel are so unconvincing. Higashino has a formula that kind of works, but you pretty much have to suspend belief in how people normally act and just accept it as the Higashino formula or the Higashino world view.
    • 3/5
      This was an ok book for me. Too many plotlines, too many investigations. Everything did come together in the end but it was not half as satisfactory or enjoyable as the other books. I did like Yukawa & kyohei's mentor mentee kind of relationship. But Yukawa's genius & deciphering skills were not quite on display as expected in a series named after him. Also what was the role of desmec anyway? It didn't make any sense to include a huge corporation. The equation is not accurate after all? Good read just not the best.
    • 3/5
      This is the second book I book I have read by Higashino and a pattern emerges of long-buried crimes coming to the surface years later. A retired homicide detective is found near the sea-wall of a coastal town. The local police assume an accident. But his friends in Tokyo refer the case to the prefecture and several detectives investigate his reasons for being at the Green Rock Inn. A physicist who has helped the police with earlier cases happens to be at the same inn and has befriended the innkeepers young nephew. His logical mind soon sees problems with the police investigation. While Americans spend the 80s assuming that the tech savvy and business savvy Japanese would eventually dominate the world this novel shows us a run-down resort town and an assortment of people who have slipped from high to lower status.
    • 4/5
      Given that I had never read any Japanese fiction until last year, it keeps cropping up on my reading list. This is a sort of police procedural in which each of the who, how and why questions about a murder are equally weighted. The characterisations, particularly of the boy and the physics professor, hold the story together well. I am always impressed when a translator makes me feel that a book is true to the feel of the original language, which is very true of this book. Very entertaining and I look forward to reading more of this author's book in the near future.
    • 4/5
      What Keigo Higashino’s A MIDSUMMER’S EQUATION lacks in action, it more than makes up for in realistic characters and settings; interesting plot twists; well-considered and deliberate pacing; and a benevolent theme. The plot follows three lines of investigation into the suspicious death of Masatsugu Tsukahara, a retired Tokyo police officer who dies of carbon monoxide poisoning in the declining resort town of Hari Cove. Of course, Manabu Yukawa, the brilliant physics professor from Imperial University conducts the most fruitful inquisition. His operating principal is mainly deductive and logical. It can be summarized in his own words: “Only by respecting the other side’s work and way of thinking can you open a path for compromise.” He effortlessly solves the riddle of Tsukahara’s murder while spending time tutoring fifth-grader, Kyohei, who he meets on the way to a conference in Hari Cove. This relationship takes on a surprising significance as the plot develops. Conducting the second line of investigation, the local police, who remind me of the bumbling Keystone Cops, just want to get the case off their books without looking too bad in the eyes of the Tokyo detectives. The third investigation is by Shunpei Kusanagi, a seasoned Tokyo homicide detective, who embarks on a more conventional shoe-leather approach while serving as the conduit for Yukawa’s theories and ideas. The plot has enough unexpected twists and turns to satisfy aficionados of the genre. The characters are just conventional people and Higashino does a masterful job of evoking empathy for them. Notwithstanding the murder and an attempted extortion, there are no real villains in this mystery. Likewise, his recreation of the setting at the rundown Green Rock Inn in Hari Cove is sublime. Despite paying some mild homage to the conflict between development and environmental degradation, Higashino’s real intention is much more humane. His dominant theme is the extent to which people will go to protect and nurture children, including not only deception, betrayal and secret-keeping; but also mentoring. This level of empathy is indeed unusual for a genre that often is darker, driven by extreme violence and mean spirited manipulation.