Thank you for doing all the work for the weekly threads!
Hello old thread! I am about to start this book in a few days and got intrigued to see it was book #2 from the series ガリレオシリーズ. But I’m guessing it can be read fine on its own? Anybody has read the first one 予知夢 and would recommend starting with that one instead? (maybe @Belerith has an opinion, I think you have read both according to Natively)
FWIW I only read this book and not the predecessors (this one is vol. 3 btw, not 2 as you wrote), but I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything. Those characters that already appeared in the previous volume are introduced properly again in this volume.
I can second what Nicole said. All the volumes can be read on their own. The characters do get developed as the series goes on, but each volumes introduces the relevant characters sufficiently for it not to matter much. Most of that happens in the long form novels; Since the first 2 volumes (探偵ガリレオ and 予知夢) are both short story collections, there’s not a lot of development happening in them. This volume is a great starting point imo. 
Thank you both for the answers, sounds great, I’m ready to dive in! Interesting that Keigo Higashino likes writing short stories as well, I have yet to try those (one of the volume of Mascarade is also short stories, volume 2 or 3 I don’t remember)
The movie adaptation is on JFF until November 
I haven’t seen it yet but I think I will give it a watch!
Thank you for the recommendation. I currently am on vacation and have some time. This will be a nice watch. Especially since 東野圭吾 just passed recently, and I haven’t read anything from him yet, I was honestly thinking about starting one of his books. This might be a good intro for me.
I did just watch it. Great watch, would recommend. (Have not read the book)
After having watched It, I honestly think I will get the book at some point to get more insight into the psyche of 石神 and the other characters. I think even more internal thoughts of most all the characters (maybe not the detectives) has the chance to make the story even better.
There’s also a full on dorama with 2 seasons that I might take a peek into. It apparently takes some of the other books as source material.