Malice is a mystery, more of a detective novel. A murder takes place at the beginning. Within a few pages, the author points out the murderer. The whole story is more of a journal of the investigator, detective Kaga. The detective leaves no stones unturned. He thoroughly investigates the ifs and the buts and logically deduces the motive behind the murder. He doesn’t accept anything at its face value and probes deep into the matter.
This wasn’t nail-biting, spine-chilling suspense but was a well-worked-out, analysed interpretation of the motive behind the murder. It is not a ‘whodunit’ but more of ‘why he did it.’
Like the way one should not judge the book by its cover, sometimes in life what appears, as a matter of fact, need not be. It covers topics like bullying, rape, preconceived notions, and the nature of people.
A Well written plot with dual narration, it has loads of twists and turns, more of a psychological mystery. The aspect of the book that I loved the most was that it was about books and authors. It also has a cat, probably a feature associated with every book by Japanese authors, at least in the ones that I have read.
Overall, an easy read, a quick read, and anyone wanting to shake off their reading slump can go for it.