Salvation of a Saint (Keigo Higashino)

This is my second reading of Salvation of a Saint - the first was about two years ago. Hence my review will not reflect my surprise at the plot or how I was blown away with the premise (which I totally was). It will focus more on how the story was built and the layers slowly unraveled. "The question, my dear Watson" as my favourite detective Sherlock Homes may say "is not how the man died, but how he did not die earlier"!

Salvation of a Saint is the second outing with Professor Galileo or Professor Manabu Yukawa, a Physics professor who doubles up as an informal Consultant to the Police force and especially to his classmate and friend Inspector Kusanagi. He has the thought process of a scientist and treats a complicated case much like he would treat a difficult science problem - he unravels it layer by layer and tests each hypothesis, however unbelievable it may seem at the first instance, till he reaches the final answer. As Sherlock Holmes, the other beloved detective we all have, says "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable must be the truth". Professor Galileo has a similar approach to crime and criminals.

A man is found dead in his house, sprawled on the carpet in his living room with a cup of coffee lying beside him. He was alone in the house and no one has entered or exited the house from the morning, when his clandestine lover (who also is his wife's student) left after spending the night with him and returned later in the evening. The wife had left the previous day to visit her parents and has a water tight alibi - she was not anywhere near the scene of crime when it happened. Forensics tells us that the man was poisoned by arsenic acid in his coffee. The only people with motive to kill seem to be the two women - the wife and the lover. But no evidence, scant as it is to start with, points to either of them. Then who did it and is this the perfect crime? Add to this, the Inspector Kusanagi developing a soft corner for Ayane Mashiba (the wife) and his subordinate Utsumi instinct telling her to look in the very same direction.

The mystery seems unsolvable but as each of the detectives uncovering layers of the crime and discovering that they need to go back some years to discover the motive, one by one the jigsaw pieces start appearing. But they will all fall in place only when the last piece is obtained. I did not notice many of the hints and clue the first time i read it - i was in a hurry to finish it to know who the murderer was in this classic whodunit. But this time around, since i did know that already, i could pick up the clues and marvel at how the writer built the whole mystery and gave us subtle clues without giving anything away. The police work is also impeccable and provides the required information in a systematic manner. There is nothing called The Perfect Crime it seems, if there is diligence and ability to pick up clues even where none are evident.

One thing I did feel is that the credit due to Detective Utsumi was not given, even at the end. The only one who seemed to have an instinct and a gut feel about the whole crime and sniffed out clues from the "vibe" she got from people, who could interpret their non verbal reactions and build on that, was not given the appropriate acknowledgement even at the end. After all, Prof Galileo was also going on her hunch. That and I wish this was left as the Perfect Crime. Sigh.