*** This review contains a spoiler ***

Mikami is the director of Media Relations in a regional Japanese police prefecture, a job that he holds reluctantly, being a detective at heart. His job is made difficult by a recalcitrant press pack kicking up a stink over transparency, and his home life has been fraught since his daughter disappeared without a trace.

In the midst of all this, Mikami is told that the Commissioner is visiting from Tokyo and wants to make an announcement about the prefecture's most notorious case - codenamed Six Four - the abduction and murder of a seven-year-old girl that has been unsolved for 14 years. Mikami was involved in this case during his early years on the force. The Commissioner wants to visit the girl's father and make a staged press announcement in front of his house.

Nobody will tell Mikami why the Commissioner is coming and what this announcement will be. Knowing that he cannot embarrass the Commissioner, he does everything he can to find out, uncovering a can of worms full of police politics and cover-ups. At the same time, his team needs to get the obstreperous Press gallery onside as fast as possible so they will cover the Commissioner's visit appropriately, and they show no signs of co-operating.

This book excels as an exposition of Japanese police procedures and the complex culture that they operate in. Hierarchies, face and respect are vital concerns that Mikami must navigate to get at the truth. The role and conduct of formal apologies in the police's relationship with the public is revealed, something that I've not read of anywhere else.

The plot has a few very good twists but I think that, at 640 pages, it is longer than it needs to be. I also found it a bit confusing and difficult to follow. There is a large number of characters with similar names, and I had trouble keeping in mind who was who. There is a reason for that, related to the plot, but I still think it was too confusing and marred my enjoyment of the book.

Overall this is a very different kind of police procedural, both due to the Japanese culture that it goes into, and the fact that the protagonist is working from the press relations point of view rather than as an investigator. That's a unique device in my experience. ( )

Ein verstörendes Buch nicht wegen der Krimi-Handlung sondern wegen der Beschreibung des Apparates und der japanischen Gesellschaft. Alles geht nur um Hierarchien und darum, das Gesicht nicht zu verlieren. Auch extrem patriarchalische Strukturen. Eine Welt, die völlig anders funktioniert als unsere. ( )

This is a tough book to rate because it seemed to be trying to do a lot of different things and I'm not sure what criteria to use to rate it. It is a bit of a thriller but also very much literature and a bit of a sociological look at Japanese bureaucracy and society. I enjoyed it even though it is a fairly long read and found the story to be compelling, but I'm not sure about how it was all wrapped up. That is more of an issue if it is a thriller than if it is literature. Anyway, I was choosing between 4 and 5 and went with 4. The book contains what may be one of the best written action/chase scenes I've ever read. I'm not sure why it worked so well but I think the attention to detail and the patience to go from step to step really paid off. A very interesting and enjoyable read. ( )

En enero de 1989, una niña de siete años fue raptada al norte de Tokio. Los padres nunca llegaron a saber la identidad del secuestrador. Tampoco volvieron a ver a su hija. Nombre en clave del caso: Seis Cuatro.

Más de una década después, el jefe de prensa de la policía se ve obligado a volver sobre el suceso, cuyo estigma no se ha diluido en el tiempo: el fracaso de la investigación sigue siendo motivo de escándalo. Pero el veterano Mikami no aspira ya a resolver el crimen, solo pretende tender una mano a la familia de la víctima y contribuir de algún modo a limpiar la reputación del cuerpo. Sin embargo, tras detectar una irregularidad en el expediente, Mikami acabará desvelando el móvil de un delito que encierra secretos inimaginables.

El comienzo empieza algo “flojo” e incluso algo “pesado” con los datos y hechos de donde trabaja el protagonista. Pero conforme avanza el libro, se vuelve mucho más interesante y acaba enganchando y queriendo saber el desenlace. Quizás el final es extraño y deja con ganas de saber algunas cosas, pero es aceptable. Si el resto de libros son iguales o mejores, no descarto leer más a Hideo Yokoyama. ( )