Under the Midnight Sun

About

A murder in 1970s Osaka sets two children on divergent paths — one toward relentless ambition, the other toward a life in the shadows. Over two decades, their stories intertwine as a detective follows the cold trail of the original crime, discovering that the murder's consequences have been shaping lives, destroying relationships, and generating new crimes for twenty years. Higashino's most ambitious novel spans decades and tracks dozens of characters, building a portrait of how a single act of violence radiates outward through time. The structure is novelistic rather than procedural — less interested in solving the mystery than in showing how the mystery solved everyone involved. A crime novel measured in decades — where the real investigation is into what violence does to the people who survive it.