Keigo Higashino may very well be the finest mystery writer from Japan today. He has had huge success with his series featuring Detective Galileo and Kyoichiro Kaga. Now, with the release of GUILT, Higashino brings us a stand-alone novel that rings true with a mystery and reads like great literary fiction.

It’s the autumn of 2017, and we’re introduced to Homicide Detective Godai of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. He and his assistant, Detective Sergeant Nakamachi, are embroiled in a puzzling case that finds them dealing with a pair of murders tied to the same possible killer that occurred 30 years apart from each other. Kensuke Shiraishi, a lawyer, is found on a riverbank in Central Tokyo. He was stabbed and beaten to death.

"Higashino shines again as his prose is so compelling, and he continues to elevate the mystery and crime fiction genres well beyond what is expected."

Godai wonders how anyone could have hated Shiraishi enough to leave his body the way they did. He appears to have been a good man without any enemies. Godai starts by taking a bullet train to a location hours outside of Japan to visit with one of Shiraishi’s last potential clients, who spoke with him by phone. Tatsuro Kuraki is a 63-year-old retiree who claims to have reached out to the late attorney on a personal matter that he cannot divulge. Other than that, he did not know him and never met him in person. He also claims that his only visits to Japan have been to see his son a few times a year. Godai feels that there is more to Kuraki than meets the eye.

All roads lead to a Tokyo restaurant run by Yoko Asaba and her daughter, Orie. Kuraki has been a fairly regular customer there for a number of years. For some unknown reason, it appears that Shiraishi may have been watching this place. Godai and Nakamachi learn that Yoko’s husband had been falsely accused of murder three decades earlier and ended up hanging himself while in detention. The family never really recovered from this. When Godai requests the case file, one name listed as a witness jumps out at him: Tatsuro Kuraki.

Godai confronts Kuraki again, but he claims not to know anything more --- even though the police have obtained video evidence that he and the victim had met for dinner at the very same restaurant in question. Just when the authorities are ready to press Kuraki further, they learn that he has confessed to the 30-year-old murder and the premeditated killing of Shiraishi. He also states that he does not wish to speak with anyone, not even his own son, and that he deserves the death penalty.

If we are to believe that Kuraki is responsible for both crimes, then the novel becomes a rumination on guilt and how it has eaten away at him for decades. Godai and Nakamachi are still trying to figure out how Kuraki could have lived with committing murder and then frequenting the restaurant where his first victim’s family worked.

Higashino shines again as his prose is so compelling, and he continues to elevate the mystery and crime fiction genres well beyond what is expected.