Review by Dips Patel of “The Devotion of Suspect X” by Keigo Higashino

Very much crime, but not a grisly type (I'm talking Mo Hayder, Kathy Reichs, Karin Slaughter type of crime fiction, the kind you feel you need scrub yourself with a wire wool brush after reading) but is a bit more of a puzzler. There's this bloke see, he's a maths genius (well a teacher of maths, but he's ruddy brilliant at problem solving) and his neighbour is a single mum who he's pretty much in love with in an-unrequited-love-from-afar-kinda-way-but-not-that-afar-she-lives-right-next-door-to-him. Anyway, she does away with her ex-hubby (the swine that he is, he had it coming I tells ya!) and this guy helps her clean up the mess, so-to-speak. Naturally the crime comes to the attention of the police and the lead detective has his suspicions and this is the meat of the story, a battle of wits between detective solving the crime and the “good” Samaritan trying to help a friend. There's a sting in the tail and every person I spoke to who read the book didn't see it coming and I most very definitely didn't, I did think I had it figured a couple of times but no it’s a sneaky twist all right!

One of the stand out crime fiction books I read in year 2012 and easily one of my “go-to” recommends of crime fiction of recent years, honestly it would make a great tv show/even film (you heard it here first people) and if you figure it out before the end you are if not a genius then far too intelligent for my liking.

About the reviewer
Dips Patel is a graduate in Graphic Design which means he can colour in without going over the lines and when he does he makes it look deliberate, cool and edgy. He much prefers fine art where the art of talking nonsense is finer still allowing him extremely moderate success in introducing his work to a wider audience. Hobbies include reading stuff, watching stuff, commendably misguided attempts at painting stuff and consuming copious amounts of coco pops, clementines, curries, cakes and cocktails, not all at the same time which is frowned upon in polite society.