Malice

Renowned best-selling author Kunihiko Hidaka is brutally killed in his house the night before he is scheduled to depart from Japan and go to Vancouver. His wife and closest friend, who both have very credible alibis, discover his death in his office, a closed room within his secured home. As it seems.

Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga identifies Osamu Nonoguchi, Hidaka's closest friend, at the murder site. They worked together as colleagues at the same public school years ago when they were both teachers. While Nonoguchi finally departed to become a full-time writer, but with nothing like the success of his buddy Hidaka, Kaga went on to join the police force.

Kaga's investigation finally yields evidence that contradicts the two authors' claims that they were closest friends, suggesting that their relationship was entirely different. Kaga is faced with the issue of why rather than who or how. The investigator and the murderer engage in a well-written game of cat and mouse as they try to figure out what happened in the past and how the murder really happened. And the truth could never be revealed if Kaga is unable to determine and substantiate the reason for the murder.

One of the best-selling—and most critically acclaimed—book in Keigo Higashino's series of books about police investigator Kyoichiro Kaga, one of the most well-liked characters written by the best-selling author in Asia, is Malice.