Silent parade - book review

There are many kinds of tortures in this wicked world. But the worst of all should be not knowing how the story ends in a book that you started but unable to finish it and yet not wanting to drop it without finishing!!! The story is so slow that at times, the words seem to simply hang in air, refusing to settle down into a sentence. To top it all, that this being a translated version with scores of characters having names that are as easy to remember as organic chemistry equations, doesn't make it any easier!! I began reading this book sometime early this year or was it a continuation from last year i don't remember. It picked pace when Thala mentioned it and i seemed to hit a dead end in the first part, that simply refused to move forward despite me doing hop skip and jump across several sections. The comfort of having seen "Galileo" series, which gave a face to Yukawa, Kishitani, Kusanagi and Utsumi, got lost pretty soon with the story dragging between two murders that happened over a period of 2 decades with the perpetrator being the common point between the two incidents. But with the second part the story picks up steam and the way they go about the investigation would put a Physics lab session to shame!!! There is so much science involved that at times it feels way too much information to share and understand for a regular thriller story! But still the detailing is what makes all these murder mysteries interesting, even though they make it drag at times. But the people involved being regular civilians and their understanding of the "means" make it slightly disbelieving. Makes one wonder if, are all Japanese so well versed in physics and chemical combinations, that such situations can be imbibed into novels of thriller genre or is it one off cases like our own "Rajesh Kumar" who has a penchant for such premises. The twists that you expect in any Higashino novels are present in this one as well, with the actual culprit changing from one person to another with more revelations and analysis by Yukawa. And like most of his other stories as well, there is a very strong element of emotion, love, involved that makes one almost feel bad for the character. The villain character gets a well-rounded ending in the end, making it all seem to be a justified action. But this silent parade was a really long parade and at times, you lose track with so many characters thrown in, and with each being equally important in taking the story forward , you cannot ignore any of them and proceed. I desperately searched for other reviews on the net to figure out the ending and none of them proved to be of any help..grrr! The extent to which each character goes to avenge their loved ones shows the deep strength of relationships and that shows their society in great light. The English translation is pretty good to be honest, as compared to other novels of Keigo that had been slightly butchered, even though some of the dialogues felt like literal translations. Overall a decent one to read, if you really will yourself to get over the first part!!