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Enjoyable alibi-breaking short stories
What I believe this book is lacking is an overall plot. However, it's barely surprising as this story was initially published as a web novel - that is, in chunks, and was later compiled, printed and published.
The cases are quite interesting and compact (super important if you wanna read only a chapter per sitting) but the main characters do not develop at all. Heck, the lead male, who’s an investigator, spills sensitive investigative details to a by-stander (the female lead) time and time again. And he’s fully aware that’s he’s prohibited to do so! Regardless, he asks her for アリバイ崩し (breaking the established alibi) in each and every case presented in the book.
I have a problem with the titular アリバイ崩し as well. I did like Tokino, the female lead and the brilliant detective in this case, but what I found inadequate was how easily and without an effort she was able to break the cases. She only listens to the male lead's summary of the investigation, maybe asks one or two questions and then boldly says "I was able to break the alibi" - just like that. I would expect more legwork, more search for clues from an ace detective, before they come to a conclusion. Her skills might be Sherlock-like, but even he got up and visited the crime scene or at least snooped around OR asked others to find certain information for him. But in アリバイ崩し承ります the presentation of a case as well as its solving happens while sitting on a sofa.
The reason I graded this book so high was because I did enjoy it after all, first and foremost. Secondly, I followed the audiobook version as well and the narrator was a pleasure to listen to. Thirdly, I noticed that I actually liked that each case was contained within one chapter. The details of each case were pretty concise, without adding unnecessary details, too, and despite that the author was able to throw a few red herrings for the reader to fall for. Overall, a good read.
As for the language aspect of this book, following an audiobook was a wise choice. There’s a lot of investigative vocabulary introduced and while grammar-wise is reads easily, vocabulary-wise it needs getting used to and grabbing that dictionary in the beginning (because later it repeats, e.g. names of police dept etc.). Audiobook helps tremendously with decoding large kanji compounds this book has.