Six four

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Title:

Six four

Alternate title:

6 4

Author:

Yokoyama, Hideo, 1957- author.

Summary:

"The nightmare no parent could endure. The case no detective could solve. The twist no reader could predict. For five days in January 1989, the parents of a seven-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl sat and listened to the demands of their daughter's kidnapper. They would never learn his identity. They would never see their daughter again. For the fourteen years that followed, the Japanese public listened to the police's apologies. They would never forget the botched investigation that became known as Six Four. They would never forgive the authorities for their failure. For one week in late 2002, the press officer attached to the police department in question confronted an anomaly in the case. He could never imagine what he would uncover. He would never have looked if he'd known what he would find. "-- Provided by publisher.

General Note:

"Originally published in Japanese in 2012 by Bungeishunju, Tokyo, as Rokuyon (6 4)"--Title page verso.

"English translation originally published in 2016 by Quercus Publishing Ltd., Great Britain"--Title page verso.

Edition:

First American edition.

Physical Description:

vi, 566 pages ; 24 cm

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction.

Subject Term:

Police -- Fiction.

Cold cases (Criminal investigation) -- Fiction.

Kidnapping -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Tokyo (Japan) -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Farrar, Straus and Giroux,

Publication Date:

2017

2016

ISBN:

9780374265519

Publication Information:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, [2017]

Call Number:

YOKOYAM

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003219550	Adult Fiction	YOKOYAM	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Named one of the best books of 2017 by The New York Times Book Review , The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle , and Literary Hub. Winner of the Best Japanese Crime Fiction of the Year Award. O ne of Vulture's 10 Best Thriller Books of 2017.

"Already a bestseller in Japan and the U.K., this cinematic crime novel suffused with fascinating cultural details follows a police department reinvestigating a chilling kidnapping that stumped them 14 years earlier." -- Entertainment Weekly , The Must List

THE NIGHTMARE NO PARENT COULD ENDURE. THE CASE NO DETECTIVE COULD SOLVE. THE TWIST NO READER COULD PREDICT.

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.

An award-winning phenomenon in its native Japan--more than a million copies sold, and the winner of the Best Japanese Crime Fiction of the Year award--and already a critically celebrated top-ten bestseller in the U.K., Hideo Yokoyama's Six Four is an unforgettable novel by a literary master at the top of his form. It is a dark and riveting plunge into a crime, an investigation, and a culture like no other.

Author Notes

Hideo Yokoyama was born in 1957. He worked for twelve years as an investigative reporter with a regional newspaper north of Tokyo before becoming one of Japan's most acclaimed fiction writers. His exhaustive and relentless work ethic is known to mirror the intense and obsessive behavior of his characters, and in January 2003 he was hospitalized following a heart attack brought about by working nonstop for seventy-two hours. Six Four is his sixth novel, and his first to be published in English.

Jonathan Lloyd-Davies studied Japanese at the University of Durham and Chinese at Oxford. His translations include Edge by Koji Suzuki, with cotranslator Camellia Nieh; the Psyche Diver trilogy by Baku Yumemakura; Gray Men by Tomotake Ishikawa; and Nan-Core by Mahokaru Numata. His translation of Edge received the Shirley Jackson Award for best novel. Originally from Wales, he now resides in Tokyo.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Japanese author Yokoyama makes his U.S. debut with a massive and complex police procedural set in 2003 in one of Japan's prefectures. Supt. Yoshinobu Mikami, who has been transferred from criminal investigations to media relations at Prefecture D Police Headquarters, must contend with unhappy members of the press who feel that the police are too selective in what they choose to share. The multilayered plot involves the unsolved kidnapping and murder of a seven-year-old girl 14 years before, physical confrontations between reporters and police, and the discordant relationships among various elements of the police force. Meanwhile, Mikami agonizes over his teenage daughter, Ayumi, who has been missing for weeks. American readers may have trouble following the bewildering conflicts and alliances, but they should gain a better understanding of a very different culture. This is a novel that requires and rewards close attention. The ending is oddly satisfying, though none of the underlying issues are truly resolved. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

In 1989, a Tokyo schoolgirl is kidnapped, but the negotiations are botched, leaving the kidnapper at large and the victim dead. Fourteen years later, Det. Yoshinobu Mikami, who had been involved in the initial investigation and who is now working in media relations, is pulled back into the cold case, labeled "Six Four," when the top brass plan a photo op around the crime. In tracing the tragic events, Mikami talks to suspects, and even the victim's family, slowly realizing that police politics, the personal tragedy of his own missing daughter, and the old 64 case are connected. Uncovering the truth and delivering justice is hard fought. Verdict A best seller in Japan, Yokoyama's English-language debut is a complex procedural that takes time to get into high gear as it follows its detective sifting through the evidence while mired in his department's bureaucratic intricacies and office politics. [See Prepub Alert, 8/16/16.]-Ron Samul, New London, CT © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.