SIX FOUR. A Novel

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017. First American edition. Hardcover. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. For five days, the parents of a seven-year-old Japanese schoolgirl sat and listened to the demands of their daughter's kidnapper. They would never learn his identity. And they would never see their daughter alive again. Fourteen years later, the mystery remains unsolved. The police department's press officer, Yoshinobu Mikami, a former detective who was involved in the original case and who is now himself the father of a missing daughter, is forced to revisit the botched investigation. The stigma of the case known as "Six Four" has never faded; the police's failure remains a profound source of shame and an unending collective responsibility. Mikami does not aspire to solve the crime. He has worked in the department for his entire career, and while he has his own ambitions and loyalties, he is hoping simply to reach out to the victim's family and to help finally put the notorious case to rest. But when he spots an anomaly in the files, he uncovers secrets he never could have imagined. He would never have even looked if he'd known what he would find. Winner of the Best Japanese Crime Fiction of the Year award. 566 pages.