Review: Six Four

Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the last days of the Showa period a little girl is abducted and killed even after her parents pay the ransom. The case has been open for 14 years, but they have no new leads. Six four was the code name for the case, as it took place in the 64th year of the Showa period (the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of the Shōwa Emperor, Hirohito, from December 25, 1926, through January 7, 1989),

Mikami, Press and Media Relations Director for the Police Prefecture, takes an interest in the case when he is asked to visit the girl's father, in order for a high police officer to pay his respects. Mikami's teen age daughter has run away, so a missing girl is a matter close to him.

When another teenage girl disappears, and the kidnapper mimics the actions of the first kidnapping, must Mikami and the prefecture's police solve this case in order to solve the first one?

This is quite a long book, more than 600 pages, and personally I think many of the situations between the police and the press are repetitive. We also have Mikami running from one high officer to another, day after day.

What is so complicated is not only the relationship between the different police departments or divisions, but the relationship between the press and the police.

That said, it is none the less an amazing read, an educational one regarding Japanese culture and it has an ending that I couldn't have imagined.


I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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