The Devotion of Suspect X

In this tightly plotted crime novel, Higashino pits a brilliant math teacher, Tetsuya Ishigami, against Dr. Manabu Yukawa, a shrewd physicist whose deductive prowess has earned him the nickname Detective Galileo. When Ishigami overhears his lovely neighbor, Yasuko Hanaoka, strangling her abusive ex-husband in the next apartment, he rushes to her aid. Smitten, he concocts a perfect, if complex, alibi for her. It's enough to mystify the investigating detective, but when Dr. Yukawa, the policeman's friend, begins his own sleuthing, and Yasuko falls in love with another man, both alibi and participants bend under the pressure. Even with its surprises and twists, the story unfolds in a manner more intellectually satisfying than emotionally gripping. But David Pittu's narration adds a humanity and passion to the proceedings, especially evident in the scenes in which Ishigami goes head to head with wily Dr. Yukawa. The former's calm manner of speaking seems to be concealing a feverishly working mind, while the doctor is evidently enjoying himself immensely. Pittu transforms those and other moments from mere wordplay into a thrilling game of cat and mouse in the Alfred Hitchcock tradition. A Minotaur hardcover. (Feb.)