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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
Six Four was a slow starter which really picked up speed towards the end. I struggled with the book a little to begin with as so much time is spent covering internal politics within the police, but as I got to grips with the characters and instigators the story became clearer. Overall a great book with an excellent twist.
challenging
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
This begins with the fourteen year old cold case kidnapping and murder of a seven year old girl, but that's just the scaffolding. Really this is a novel about the internal politics of a Japanese police prefecture and the machinations between departments and officers jockeying for position.
Mikami is a detective reassigned to the press office, a forgotten corner of administration where he leads a group of three working out of a too-small office. As the novel begins, they are stuck between the administration department and an increasingly angry press as they seek to keep the name of a driver who hit a pedestrian secret. At the same time, Mikami is asked to set up the press for a visit from the top police commissioner from Tokyo and things rapidly fall apart as he is torn between what he is being asked to do and what he feels is right, between the responsibilities of his current job and his allegiance to the career he had as a detective and in finding out what exactly went so wrong fourteen years ago. Miakami and his wife are also searching for their runaway daughter.
I can't tell you why a novel focused on the internal struggles of a police department should be so fascinating, but I enjoyed every single page. Mikami was just such a great character to spend time with as he methodically works to figure out what exactly is going on and gains some understanding of himself, his wife and his career.
Mikami is a detective reassigned to the press office, a forgotten corner of administration where he leads a group of three working out of a too-small office. As the novel begins, they are stuck between the administration department and an increasingly angry press as they seek to keep the name of a driver who hit a pedestrian secret. At the same time, Mikami is asked to set up the press for a visit from the top police commissioner from Tokyo and things rapidly fall apart as he is torn between what he is being asked to do and what he feels is right, between the responsibilities of his current job and his allegiance to the career he had as a detective and in finding out what exactly went so wrong fourteen years ago. Miakami and his wife are also searching for their runaway daughter.
I can't tell you why a novel focused on the internal struggles of a police department should be so fascinating, but I enjoyed every single page. Mikami was just such a great character to spend time with as he methodically works to figure out what exactly is going on and gains some understanding of himself, his wife and his career.
I struggled through 300 of the 600 pages of this book and finally put it down in complete frustration. It was sold as a crime novel, which it is, only marginally. It's a police procedural with the focus on "procedural" including the petty bureaucracy, politics and formal courtesies of the Japanese police of Prefecture D, the press who cover the police and a decade-old kidnapping and murder which is a catalyst for the internecine rivalries. I'm sure it was a difficult translation, and likely faithful, but there is little poetry, drama or tension in the words or the story. It plods and plods, slowly (did I mention slowly), revealing the personality of a main character who is completely out-of-touch with his own emotions, and with those around him, and a police corruption case that pits this character against his former colleagues. How does it end? Who cares?
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Too much detail about Japanese culture. Not sure if due to translation or the author.