Takashi et Tomohiko, deux amis proches qui ont fait leurs études ensemble, travaillent au sein d'une entreprise spécialisée dans la réalité virtuelle et mènent des recherches sur le cerveau et la mémoire.
Un jour, Tomohiko présente à Takashi sa petite amie, Mayuko. Takashi est abasourdi : lorsqu'il était étudiant, il apercevait tous les jours Mayuko dans le train d'en face à la gare. Tombé amoureux d'elle, il ne l'avait pourtant jamais abordée. Et voilà qu'un matin, lorsque Takashi se réveille, Mayuko lui prépare le petit-déjeuner comme si elle était sa petite amie...
Pouvons-nous nous fier à nos souvenirs ? Et que sommes-nous sans eux ? Au croisement de la romance et de la littérature spéculative, Keigo Higashino nous livre une love story d'un genre unique.
'With its stopwatch timing, locked-room murder and perplexing abundance of alibis ... Readers are in store for plenty of surprises' Wall Street Journal
Multiple murders. Decades apart. No solid evidence.
A popular young girl disappears without a trace, her skeletal remains discovered three years later in the ashes of a burned-out house. There's a suspect and compelling circumstantial evidence of his guilt, but no concrete proof. When he isn't indicted, he returns to mock the girl's family. And this isn't the first time he's been suspected of the murder of a young girl; nearly twenty years ago he was tried and released due to lack of evidence. Chief Inspector Kusanagi of the Homicide Division of the Tokyo Police worked both cases.
The neighbourhood in which the murdered girl lived is famous for an annual street festival, featuring a parade with entries from around Tokyo and Japan. During the parade, the suspected killer dies unexpectedly. His death is suspiciously convenient but the people with all the best motives have rock solid alibis. Chief Inspector Kusanagi knows that once again there is only one person who can solve this string of seemingly impossible murders: his college friend, Physics professor and occasional police consultant Manabu Yukawa, known as Detective Galileo ...
