Six four by Hideo Yokoyama
Published: March 3rd 2016 by Quercus Publishing
Genre: Fiction, thriller, mystery, Japan
Pages: 656

Six four is marketed as a Japanese thriller mystery and on that basis I struggled.

The story begins in medias res as Mikami is on his way to identify a body that might be his daughter and I am instantly pulled in. But somewhere along the way I get lost amidst some bureaucratic police stuff that leaves me worried that I’ve missed something. The story of the old case is exciting, but things move along too slow and get lost in the hierarchy that is the Japanese police.

I had to stop and read some review to see where this was going and found that SixFour is the fourth book in a series called “Prefecture D” which kinda pulls everything together for me. Of course it’s more about the police force than the actual crimes then, and of course we’re jumping straight into the story, it started 3 books ago!

I like to be thorough and I never begin a book in the middle of a series, I start from the beginning – always! But alas, only the fourth book is available in English.

I stopped reading, but I didn’t hate the parts I read, but it wasn’t enough to keep me going. Also not being able to read the preceding three books irritates me. I would have found it very interesting to read a well written series that goes into detail on the procedures of the Police in Japan.

I abandoned the book for now, until the whole series is translated, maybe…