[DeepL Translation - needs review] Shunsuke Honma, a detective on leave, is asked by a distant relative to search for his fiancée, Sekine Akiko. Why did Akiko go to such lengths to erase her existence? Who in the world is she? The key to solving the mystery is hidden in the horrific life of a bankrupt person who is a victim of the credit card society. A masterpiece in the history of mysteries that won the Shugoro Yamamoto Award.
(Translator: DeepL)
Content warnings: animal cruelty, not graphic; murder; suicide.
Basic plot: A detective is approached by his deceased wife’s cousin’s son (yes, really) about his fiancee who went missing after he confronted her about something in her past. In searching for the runaway woman the detective discovers quite a bit more than the tidbit of past that caused her to flee.
The story took quite a long time to become interesting, at least for me. It was around the 90 page mark where I finally had my interest piqued. I think it says a lot about 宮部みゆき’s writing style that I lasted that long without getting bored and stopping - it’s honestly just interesting to read even when the plot is a bit dry. I should probably note that you will enjoy this book more if you like books that have a lot of social commentary. If you’re interested in Japanese societal problems in the 90s, this is your book. If you want a fast paced thriller, this is not your book.
Vocab spread is quite large as the narration weaves in and out of things relevant to the case, to describing character back stories, to talking about their appearances and impressions they give off. Expect a lot of business, finance, and legal terminology - but nothing too terribly deep into the fields. Think of your standard swath of vocab for those fields in your native language and this will be about the same.
A bit of Kansai dialect, maybe some others but I wasn’t paying too close of attention to it. Nothing was terribly difficult to parse.
Grammar wise it’s probably mostly covered by N2 with a scattering N1. The writing is on the descriptive side and not always straight forward prose.