The Devil's Whisper [Paperback]

Sixteen-year-old Mamoru Kusaka has not had an easy life. His dad allegedly embezzled money from the company he worked for and then abandoned him and his mother when Mamoru was a small child. He and his mother stayed in their same small town and endured the rumors and rudeness of the people there towards them. Then his mother dies and he is sent to live with an aunt and uncle he doesn't even know. Just as he is adjusting to life in Tokoyo with his new family, his uncle who drives a taxi hits and kills a young woman one night and is charged with manslaughter. Mamoru sets out to prove his innocence.

While attempting to prove his uncle's innocence he comes across some information about the young woman which is not very flattering. Evidently she and other young ladies would pretend to fall in love with lonely men and scam them of their money. It just so happens there were 4 of these young women and 3 of them are dead by the time Mamoru investigates. He is torn with what to do with the information as he knows this will only further devastate the family of the young woman run over by his uncle, yet he must get his uncle out of jail. About this time a powerful businessman comes forward as a witness and states the light was green and the girl came out of nowhere, thus setting Mamoru's uncle free. This stranger adds another layer of deception to the story.

Meanwhile Mamoru is determined the save the 4th woman's life and thus sets out to find her. He does rescue her at the last minute but then the killer contacts him. He finally meets the killer and it is not at all what one would expect. The same unexpectedness comes from the powerful businessman as well. I won't tell you the details here so you can read for yourself. But this was a beautifully written book with some brilliant plot twists and some very unique characters. Read it for yourself and find out.

This is the second Miyabe novel I read, the first being Shadow Family. First thing I should note that if you've read All She Was Worth/Kash and Shadow Family first, please read Devil's Whisper with an open mind and no expectations. One thing I realized about Miyabe's novels, is that although in US she is categorized as a Mystery author, in reality she's a "jack of all trades." She writes every genre, and often mixing them. For example, Crossfire is more like an action/thriller/paranormal type where as Shadow Family is purely mystery to the core (and a short study on family and nature of humans). In the case of Devil's Whisper, it is definitely a mix, with a prominence in mystery, and some leaning toward other genre. Therefore, PLEASE read this with an open mind.

That said, unlike Shadow Family, Devil's Whisper does have a main character who gets developed as the story goes on. Mamoru is a 16 year old boy who has a slightly "dirty" past regarding his parents and where he came from. Despite all the pain he went through as a child, he grew up as a fine boy and has a strong character. When a girl got killed by his Taxi-driver Uncle (whom he lives with along with his Aunt and cousin after his mother's death), he decided to help his Uncle by researching into the girl who died. What he found out was more than just what happened with the girl who died, or her past, but also what happened in his own past.

Weirdly enough, despite Mamoru being a well fleshed out character, I find myself unable to truly connect with him. Even now after reading the novel and finding out the truth, I find myself unable to accept or sometimes even understand the choices he made. Maybe it's something that's lost in translation, but Mamoru also came across as someone without emotion, except a bit of anger, and a lot of fear at one point in the novel. What I received from him was slightly more on the "depressing" side, which perhaps is what made it very difficult for me to connect with him. So oddly enough, rather than connecting with him as a "friend" or "another side of me" (which is what books usually try to do, in order to pull in the viewer), I find myself feeling like his "older sister," wanting to reprimand him on some of his decisions, and feeling perplexed as to the choices he made. But again, maybe this is something that was just lost in translation.

The resolution is also a bit on the unconventional side of mystery. I don't want to give anything away, but I do suggest the reader to view with open mind and give the book a chance, and make your decisions at the end after everything's said and done. At the very least, the first 3/4th of the book was extremely enjoyable, with the last 1/4th of the book slightly on the unconventional but still interesting side.

A rather multilayered book, I read it very fast (granted, the period involved a long night flight) and the story was gripping enough to keep the pages turning. Initially, it seems that the story is somewhat scattered and goes into a number of directions, but at the end Miyabe brings all the strands together, some in more credible ways than others. Miyabe writes well, in an uncomplicated way, and always explores psychological and moral issues (this is the third book by her that I've read). She is quite harsh on Japan, revealing disturbing aspects of the rather restrictive social order. Many of the characters are credible and portrayed in a nuanced way, while others remain more like caricatures. There is a certain inconsistency, which affects the entire credibility of the plot. As a whole, this was not one of my favorites.