Recently, the 7th installment of the Galileo series, the short story collection "The Phantom Clown", published by New Classics and created by Keigo Higashino in 2012, has landed on the national book market. It is understood that this is the first time that Chinese Simplified version of the work has been published in its entirety, including a total of 7 reasoning stories of "Illusion", "Perspective", "Listening to the Heart", "Qu Qiu", "Nianbo", "Camouflage" and "Acting". And most of these stories have been filmed and television in the TV series "Detective Galileo 2".
【Japan】Keigo Higashino by "The Clown of the Imaginary Image"
Readers familiar with Keigo Higashino's works should know that the so-called "Galileo series" is a speculative fiction written by Yukawa Gaku, an associate professor of physics at Tetsudo University, as a key figure in solving the case. In this series, the most well-known to Chinese readers is "The Dedication of Suspect X". In fact, this series of works has been adapted into film and television dramas many times, and it is by no means the only "Dedication of Suspect X" that has been repeatedly remade. In the Galileo series of film and television works, the images of Yukawa Gaku, played by Masaharu Fukuyama, toshihei Kusanagi, played by Kazuki Kitamura, and kaoru Uchikai, a female criminal police officer played by Yuki Shibasaki, are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. However, in the TV series "Detective Galileo 2", Kaoru Uchikai has very little role, mainly kishitani Misha, played by Yuriko Kishitani, performing tasks that originally belonged to Kaoru Uchikai. Behind such adjustments there are complex grievances, mainly the problems of the actors, which have nothing to do with the original storyline. The female police officer who appeared in the original book is still Kaoru Uchikai, and there is no Kishitani Misha, which is also the most obvious difference between the main characters in "The Clown of the Illusion" and the TV series "Detective Galileo 2".
Yukawa Gaku and Toshihei Kusanagi in the "Detective Galileo" series of film and television works
Perhaps in "The Dedication of Suspect X", Yukawa still gives the impression of a scholar who focuses on physics research and does not smile. But in "The Phantom Clown", he gives the impression that his knowledge and interests are very broad, and he is not a nerd who is only immersed in the physical world. For example, in "Qu Qiu", he deduced from the paint on the protagonist's car that the paint fell off and revealed rust, and deduced that the car had encountered spraying fire extinguishing agent, which is obviously in the field of chemistry. For example, he is also a member of the fan club of the relevant theater troupe in "Acting", and even Kusanagi does not know that he is also interested in drama. Even in Perspective, he even knows cold reading, he is not a social person, why would he know this knowledge? Such a Yukawa makes people suspect that he does not fall in love after work, and spends his time on various knowledge.
The so-called "phantom clown", what I understand is that in these 7 reasoning stories, in addition to analyzing the case with keen insight and rational reasoning, Yukawa also tried to role-play many times in order to deeply understand the people involved. For example, in "Illusion", he pretended to be the editor-in-chief of the magazine and personally went to the lair of the mysterious religious organization to investigate. In "Nianbo", he performed with his twin sister a scene of telepathic identification of the killer of his sister, and even the grass was concealed. In "Acting", he even claimed in front of the actors that he did not know Kusanagi and Inland Sea, who were responsible for the investigation of the case, which made the other party relax his vigilance and expose the truth he wanted to hide because of the wording.
In addition, yukawa also caught my attention in the case of the severe trauma left in his heart by the arrest of his friend Tetsuya Ishigami. In "Disguise", Yukawa, who originally lacked humanity, would open up to the heroine, on the one hand, because the woman had helped him and Kusanagi, out of gratitude to her. On the other hand, it is because in "The Dedication of Suspect X", yukawa's help to the police can understand the truth of the case, but Ishijin is also arrested. Affected by the incident of the stone god, he did not want the person who could have escaped the law to be forced to a dead end because of his participation in assisting in the investigation of the case, but hoped that the wrongdoer could be given a chance to try his best to make up for it. In the same series of works "Forbidden Magic", which was created later than "The Clown of the Illusion", Yukawa has a similar behavior, so that Yukawa is no longer cold.
Specifically, the 7 reasoning stories in "The Clown of the Imaginary Image" can be described as unique. Yukawa has contributed exquisite reasoning to the detection of each case. Of the 7 stories, the one that surprised me the most was Acting. Behind the truth of "Perspective" and "QuQiu", there is a sad warmth hidden. In any case, it is obvious that the reasoning story designed by Keigo Higashino is not only complex intrigue and meticulous reasoning, but also rich in emotional color in cold cases. This makes his stories more plausible to read and more receptive to readers.
The original case of "Illusion" was when a believer in an emerging religion fell from a window on the fifth floor and died while sending a message to his ancestors. The police officer in charge of the case approached Kusanagi for help, but neither Kusanagi nor Yukawa was interested in the case. It wasn't until Kusanagi's sister's mother-in-law also became a believer in this religion that Kusanagi could no longer stay out of the matter under the advice of her sister, so she had to go to Yukawa for help. As a physicist, Yukawa certainly does not believe in the idea that religious ancestors send their memories. After synthesizing the reporter's interview experience, Yukawa personally went to the scene to investigate and experience, and soon solved the case smoothly. It turned out that everything was just an illusion created by The Patriarch's wife, and even the Patriarch had been deceived. The most ironic thing is that Kusanagi's sister actually gave Yukawa a ticket to the divination club as a thank you. It's hard to imagine, if Yukawa really went, what kind of scene would it be, to smash the field? Wouldn't he end up looking for a fortune teller as a girlfriend?
In Perspective, a sake lady introduced by Kusanagi shows Yukawa her clairvoyance skills, and for a moment Yukawa can't see through how she does it. Soon after, the young lady was killed, and it was her clairvoyance skill that brought her to death. It turned out that the suspect had been embezzling public funds and was worried that the victim had seen his evidence through perspective, so he killed people and killed people. But in fact, Yukawa later discovered the truth of the victim's perspective and confirmed that she could not see the evidence of the suspect's crime hidden in the envelope, and she only used cold reading to make the suspect think that she had seen it. What is even more surprising is that according to Yukawa, the so-called cold reading technique is a technique often used by diviners, and he has really even dabbled in divination-related knowledge. In addition, in this story, Yukawa also helps the victim's stepmother untie a knot between their mother and daughter, giving the cruel murder a little more warmth.
The story of "Listening to the Heart" tells the story of a company who fell from his home and died, and the police deduced that he committed suicide based on the situation in his home, but Kusanagi, who was in charge of investigating the case, still had some doubts in his heart. Not long ago, the female employee who had an extramarital affair with the management committed suicide by forcing him to divorce her and then marry her. Could it be that the woman really came to find the negative man to ask for his life? Next, Kusanagi was stabbed by a male employee of the company who had auditory hallucinations at the hospital. The person in charge of the investigation of the case happened to be Kusanagi's classmate and his former rival, Nobuji Kitahara. Employees of the same company had one accident after another, and Kusanagi suspected that the management who had committed suicide before had also had auditory hallucinations. So he asked Kaoru Uchiha to join forces with Kitahara to investigate whether anyone in the company still had auditory hallucinations. Originally, Kitahara was jealous and dissatisfied with Kusanagi, who had been promoted to the Metropolitan Police Department to search for a lesson, and this time it was even determined that the man who had injured Kusanagi was only mentally disturbed due to the pressure of work. Kitahara was reluctant to even reveal the case to Yukawa, an outsider, and certainly did not want to listen to Yukawa's scientific analysis. But in the end, Kitahara was shaken by Yukawa's verbal stimulation, and saw in the culprit of the auditory hallucination that he had a similar and jealously distorted mentality, which also made him understand the gap between his work attitude and Kusanagi.com.
Yukawa Gaku and Kaoru Uchikai in the Galileo Galileo series
"Qu Qiu" tells the story of Yukawa's use of science and technology to help a career waterloo pitcher improve his pitching actions, and most importantly, Yukawa also helped the pitcher find the mental motivation to reinvigorate. Originally, the pitcher's wife advised him to retire, but because his wife died of an accidental robbery and injury, no one objected to him continuing to extend the career cycle. But in the heart of the pitcher, he still cares about the opinions made by his wife before he dies. It was also with Yukawa's help that the pitcher learned that his wife's true intention was: I hope that even if he goes to Taiwan to develop, he will not give up his career. And this has a great effect on the pitcher's psychology, so he can regain his former style. Without Yukawa's help, Kusanagi and others even suspected the pitcher's wife of an affair because of a gift from the deceased's side, which later proved to be a misunderstanding. If the pitcher is also suspicious of his wife, it will be another blow to him. Under the collective action of many blows, the consequences may be unimaginable.
The story of "Nianbo" involves the telepathy between the twins, of course, Yukawa, who only believes in science, does not believe in the so-called "telepathy" at all. Therefore, when the twin sister had a premonition that her sister might be killed and was quickly confirmed, Yukawa, who saw her sister, saw through her lies at a glance and guessed that there must be something hidden in it. In the end, with Yukawa's cooperation, he successfully made the suspect with a ghost in his heart expose his horse's feet. This time, even Kusanagi was kept in the dark, until the police found physical evidence, and the murderer confessed to the main messenger behind the scenes, and Yukawa confessed to Kusanagi everything he had previously hidden.
At the beginning of "Disguise", Kusanagi and Yukawa go to the wedding of a classmate who has become the mayor of the town at the hotel, and on the way, the car tire bursts and catches the heavy rain. A beautiful woman drove by and saw them repairing the car in the rain, so she stopped the car and gave them an umbrella. When he arrived at the hotel, Yukawa noticed that the beautiful woman was also staying in the same hotel. Due to heavy rain and mudslides, some of the downhill roads were impassable, and those who came to the wedding, including the Commissioner of Police, were stranded at the hotel, and the Commissioner received a call to learn that there had been a murder in the nearby villa area. Because the director was originally in charge of traffic and was not familiar with criminal investigation work, and because of the road conditions, the police station could not send others to the scene, so the mayor asked Kusanagi to go to the scene with the director. When it was not until the villa where the accident occurred, it turned out that the beautiful woman who reported the crime was the beautiful woman who gave the umbrella to Yukawa, and the old couple who were killed was her parents. When Yukawa saw the photos taken by Kusanagi from the crime scene, he found suspicious points from them and deduced the beautiful woman's disguise of the crime scene and the reasons behind it. But Yukawa did not directly expose it to the director, but interviewed the woman alone and persuaded him to confess the truth to the director.
The story of "Acting" begins with the scene of a murder, a male artist of the troupe dies in his home, and his ex-girlfriend, who is also an actress of the same troupe, does various disguises at the scene of the murder before leaving. Later, the deceased's ex-girlfriend met with an actress in the same troupe who was also a costume to talk about work, and because they could not contact the victim, the two went to his home together to find him killed and called the police. The truth of this story is a bit of a surprise, it turns out that everything is an acting show of the deceased's ex-girlfriend. She used the murders and the production of alibis as screenwriters to take the opportunity of the murders into action. When Yukawa discussed the case with her, the way he expressed the murder weapon on the deceased from the other party doubted whether she was shielding the real murderer. Coupled with the misleading effect played by Yukawa based on the murder weapon left at the scene, it was deduced that the real murder weapon may be enough to determine the owner's item, and the police soon found the real murder weapon in the real murderer's home, so that the real murderer was arrested.
In short, the 7 reasoning stories gathered in "The Phantom Clown" may not have the touching self-denial plot of "The Dedication of Suspect X", nor the brain-burning tricks, but every reasoning unfolded with Yukawa as the protagonist is also logical and clear and reasonable. These 7 stories with different styles fully demonstrate the characteristics of Higashino Keigo's social reasoning: on the basis of rigorous reasoning, pay attention to the motives of the case and the impact on society, and at the same time reveal the complex characteristics of human nature with the help of the case. For readers who love the Galileo series, The Phantom Clown is also a short collection not to be missed. (Author: Li Shuyuan)