Keigo Higashino

Tunnel vision is no way to make it as a researcher. Your assumptions are your worst enemies. Trust them too much, and you’ll fail to see what’s right under your nose.

“Murder is murder. Everything else is just details.”

I knew there was no point in thinking about it, yet the regret was hard to keep down

I had no idea what that had to do with anything. Maybe it was just another example of the odd way that detectives saw the world.

Therein lies Nonoguchi’s aim: to create a fictional account of the events in order to divert suspicion from himself.

I was desperately trying to remain calm, when in fact my heart was racing so fast, I thought I might pass out at any moment.

The look in his eyes made me flinch, even though my brain was off wondering about completely unrelated things, such as why this man loved saying personally all the time.

The Osamu Nonoguchi that I knew was prideful, confident in his abilities. I couldn’t conceive of him copying so much of someone else’s work, even in the attempt to become a better writer.

Well, you see, Mr. Nonoguchi always wanted to be a writer, and his childhood friend beat him to it. But he couldn’t just ignore what his friend was doing. Of course he thought, ‘What’s so great about these? I could write better.’”

Still, it was lucky for him that he became a bestselling author soon after that, or I suspect that he wouldn’t have been able to make his mortgage payments.