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Six Four

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Six Four

By: Hideo Yokoyama, Jonathan Lloyd-Davies - translator
Narrated by: Richard Burnip
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SIX FOUR.
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 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.
(P)2016 Quercus Editions Ltd©2016 Hideo Yokoyama International Mystery & Crime Mystery Police Procedurals Thriller & Suspense
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Critics' reviews

Not only is Six Four an addictive read, it is an education about Japan, its police and its society, and simply one of the best crime novels I have ever read. (David Peace)
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Was wäre für andere Hörer sonst noch hilfreich zu wissen, um das Hörbuch richtig einschätzen zu können?

Es handelt sich hierbei nicht um einen klassischen Krimi. Die Geschichte dreht sich for allem um den Direktor für Pressearbeit in einer japanischen Polizeipräfektur und seiner Arbeit die Journalisten-Meute unter Kontrolle zu halten. Immer wieder entstehen Konflikte zwischen Presse und Polizei, die er zu lösen versucht. Dabei kämpft er gegen die polizeiinternen Grabenkämpfe zwischen Abteilungen, die jeweils ihren eigenen Einfluss ausbauen möchten. Letztendlich handelt es sich um einen Aneinanderreihung an Situationen, bei denen Personen gezielt mit Gesichtsverlust bedroht sind, zum Beispiel ein Polizeidirektor, der nur mit einem Stapel weißer Seiten Papier in die Pressekonferenz geschickt wird. Die sozialen und kulturellen Zwänge, die jeder einzelne in Japan unterliegt, ziehen sich wie ein roter Faden durch den Roman. Das ist zwar sehr interessant, wurde mir auf Dauer aber auch ein wenig langatmig. Denn abgesehen von diesen politischen Intrigen entwickelt sich die Handlung sehr schleppend. Wie gesagt, es handelt sich eher um eine Sozialstudie, als einen Thriller.

Interessanter Einblick in die japanische Kultur

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As stated by previous reviews, this novel is mainly a in-depth exploration of the interwoven roles of police and press as well as prefectural Vs. federal politics. Its deeply rooted in Japanese society and values which makes this in-depth analysis either interesting or deeply boring to you depending on your level of interest and familiarity with the topics. The actual abduction case is a background event for over 90% of the novel, as the main character isn't even interested in solving it. His goal of being a good press director just ends up eventually connecting him to it. So don't go into this hoping for a fast paced thrille - although if you pay attention and are familiar with basics of the Japanese alphabet, you might be able to notice an important clue early on, which is quite rewarding. The narrator does pretty well on the Japanese names but often his character speech doesn't match the dialogue tags (as in very animated when it's followed by "he whispered" and similar). Overall it also feels like the novel could have been trimmed down for this release.

Social study with criminal case backstory

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Stellenweise sehr spannend aber schlussendlich zu langatmig und das Ende hat mir auch nicht gefallen.
Ich glaube, ein Politthriller wäre der richtige Ausdruck, halt nicht so meins.

Bis zum Ende durchgehalten...

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this story takes AGES to pick up momentum. I wanted to stop listening at the 20h mark (and quite a few times before that), then saw it was only 4 more hours to listen to and decided to hang in. I totally regret that. This novel is an utter bore. don't, just DON'T!

an utter bore

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