The Name Of The Game Is A Kidnapping By Keigo Higashino

I devoured The Name of the Game is a Kidnapping by Keigo Higashino in a day as it was an engrossing read. Compared to the other books by Higashino, this novel is shorter at 238 pages. It is definitely not Higashino’s best but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. When it comes to twists, Keigo Higashino is second to none.

The Name of the Game is a kidnapping by Keigo Higashibo

It reads a little different from the familiar Higashino style of writing.  I guess that is because this novel was translated by Jan Mitsuko Cash and not Alexander O. Smith, the translator for the Devotion of Suspect X, Malice, A Midsummer’s Equation and Journey Under the Midnight Sun.

Shinsuke Sakuma, an egotistic advertising executive at Cyberplan, is upset when his ambitious publicity project for Nissei Automobile is shot down by Katsutoshi Katsuragi, the son of the chairman of Nissei Motors, and is removed from his car ad team. He feels an urge to retaliate and the opportunity falls into lap: while spying on Katsuragi’s bungalow he runs into a girl who introduces herself as Juri, Katsuragi’s daughter born out of wedlock with one of his mistresses.

Juri has run away from home after a quarrel with Chiharu, her half-sister. Sakuma and Juiri concoct a phony kidnap plan. The game begins. The two pull it off and collect the 30 million yen ransom. But Sakuma begins to realize something’s not right and tries to uncover the answers. When he finally does, he realizes he’s not nearly as shrewd as he thought he was. The game he played — and thinks he won — may, in fact, have been an entirely different game after all.

While it is not quite as taut as a truly great thriller, it still has a lot going for it and I personally find it a crisp and sleek mystery, true to Higashino style.