The Devil’s Whisper, by Miyuki Miyabe. 50.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

An intricately plotted mystery with sf elements.

Two young women commit suicide under mysterious circumstances, but when a third dashes out into the path of a taxi, the driver is blamed for her death. The taxi driver’s nephew, teenage Mamoru, is living with the family after his father embezzled money and then disappeared. All of these elements and more intertwine as Mamoru investigates the deaths.

Like Miyabe’s other novels that I’ve read, this begins with a who-dun-it (or why- or how-) and spirals out into more primal mysteries about why people behave the way they do, how far they’ll go in pursuit of their desires, and what we really mean when we talk about morality and justice. There are also strong noir elements, in which people play out their desperate dramas within a larger society that couldn’t care less about any given individuals and whose impersonal forces can crush them like bugs and never even notice.

This novel is written in omniscient point of view, and the God’s-eye perspective works well with the complex structure, in which a web of connections and coincidences begins to seem like some greater power is at work behind the scenes. (God, fate, Miyabe— you decide.)

Engrossing, thoughtful, and well-characterized; dark but also humane and hopeful. Note that the most gruesome bit in the whole book is in the first few pages, so if you can get past that, you’re good to go.

View on Amazon: The Devil's Whisper



If the force behind the deaths had been psychic powers or a shinigami’s notebook, I would have found those impossible explanations more believable than the theoretically possible ones we were given, of hypnosis and subliminal advertising. I generally find outright fantasy easier to buy than fictional improvements on things which exist in real life, but don’t work that way in real life.