Invisible Helix by Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray (Abacus Books) ~Ernie Hoyt

Keigo Higashino is one of Japan’s most prominent mystery writers. Many of his books have been adapted into movies and television series. One of the most popular is the adaptation of his Detective Galileo series starring popular actor and singer-songwriter Masaharu Fukuyama. The book series includes The Devotion of Suspect X (Asia by the Book, December 2020), Salvation of a Saint, A Midsummer’s Equation, and Silent Parade.

Invisible Helix is the latest addition to the Detective Galileo series. It was originally published in the Japanese language as 透明の螺旋 (Tomei no Rasen) in 2021 by Bungeishunju Ltd. The English edition was translated by Giles Murray who has translated a number of Japanese books, from business biographies to history, fiction and essays and even manga. 

The body of a young man is found floating in Tokyo Bay off the coast of Chiba Prefecture. The corpse’s body was so decomposed that it was hard to determine the victim’s age. There were no clues to his identity either; however, the police did discover something very important - the man had a small wound that looked similar to a bullet wound. The autopsy confirmed that it was indeed a bullet wound, turning this into a homicide case. 

After making a number of inquiries, the police were able to determine that the dead body was most likely a man from Adachi Ward in Tokyo named Ryota Uetsuji and was currently living with his girlfriend Sonoka Shimauchi. It was his girlfriend who filed a missing persons report. When the officer who took her report tried to contact her, he had no response and went to her apartment  but she wasn’t home. 

The detectives called her employer and found that she had suddenly taken time off from work only three days after filing the report. When the detectives investigated the couple’s apartment, they found clothes and other items were missing as well. It also came to the light that Sonoko was a victim of sexual abuse and the police assumed she must be the killer since she disappeared shortly after his  body was found. 

However, Shimauchi has an airtight alibi. She can prove that she was miles away, in Kyoto, when Ryota Uetsuji disappeared. Now the two detectives on the case, Detective Kusanagi and Detective Utsumi have to restart their investigation. If Sonoko Shimauchi didn’t kill her boyfriend, then who did?

They found that before her boyfriend moved in with her, she was living with her mother Chizuko. Chizuko had died a year and half earlier.  The detectives discover that Chizuko became good friends with a children’s book author named Nana Asahi who writes unusual stories usually related to science. The detectives managed to talk to her editor and learned a little more about her. One of her books was titled Little Lonely Monopo. It was a story about a monopole. In physics it is a single electric charge or a magnetic pole. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it is a “hypothetical north or south magnetic pole existing alone”. 

The detectives were able to contact Ms. Asahi’s editor and they discovered that was a pseudonym she used. Her real name is Nae Matsunaga. However, what really caputured Detective Kusanagi’s interest was the bibliography where he saw the following entry: Yukawa Manabu, If I Ever Met a Monopole, Teito University. 

Manabu Yukawa is a physics professor and an old friend of Kusanagi’s. He has also helped the police department solve difficult cases in the past. Once Yukawa gets involved, another name is added to the list of suspects. The owner and mama-san of a high-class hostess bar called VOWM. This woman seemed determined to recruit Sonoko to work at her club even though Sonoko wasn’t as beautiful as most of her other employees. 

As Manuba Yukawa, nicknamed “Galileo” helps the police in the investigation, he must confront his own past as well. Will he help the police to solve the case? Will he be able to find Sonoko Shimauchi? And will he be able to find out who exactly murdered Ryota Uetsuji and why…