Despite of this, it shouldn’t be much of a problem to read it without knowing the other volumes. Of course we learned about the main protagonists’ backgrounds in previous books, but usually there is a quick recap in each volume that covers the most important points. Character development is also very slow because each volume’s main focus is on a given criminal case and not on the life of the people around it, and the cases themselves have been totally unrelated so far. In any case, if you are wondering about anything while reading this book, you are of course free to ask and somebody can fill you in.
By the way Nicole, I see that you’re reading this one, but I think you dropped the previous one? If so, you might be missing some of the developments from “Who Inside” ^^’ I’m not sure if they’re gonna be important in this volume, but I’ll be very surprised if they don’t come up. Do you want a quick recap or are you good?
I don’t have the best memory for details so someone correct me if I get this wrong ^^’
Big spoilers for "Who Inside" obviously!!
Moe invites Saikawa to some event where he gets to meet Moe’s aunt (the wife of the police chief I think?) and somehow it turns into an お見合い where the aunt is like “what do you think of marrying my niece”. Of course Saikawa just evades her questions.
Later in the book, Moe faints and ends up in the hospital. Her butler calls Saikawa in the middle of the night and doesn’t say much but Saikawa infers that Moe has a terrible disease that she has not been told about, and doesn’t have very long left to live. Of course this changes his perspective on things.
At the hospital he kisses Moe (on the forehead?? it’s up for debate, the text doesn’t say) and then in the hallway he tells the aunt that he’ll marry Moe and goes to get the paperwork which he signs. He then shows the paperwork to Moe (still at the hospital) and asks her if she’ll sign it. She gets flustered and asks him to take her on a car ride, and then ends up confessing that the whole disease thing was a (bad) April fools’ joke.
Saikawa is understandably upset and less enthusiastic about marrying her, but in the end he doesn’t reject the possibility, and Moe’s aunt makes her sign the paperwork and keeps it, sort of as a marriage promise, but the papers are not submitted to the government so they’re not officially married (yet). And that’s sort of how that ends as far as I remember? Oh and I think Saikawa tells Moe that this prank proves she’s still just a kid.
Incredible but true: I read the first section yesterday night! (Given the fact that I didn’t really have time to read anything last month, I’m really proud )
At first I thought that it was talking about Saikawa - I think we had a similar scene once, with him taking a walk in the forest and having a smoke? But then I realized it is about somebody else. And I must confess that I just read the news story about the Rammstein singer, and now I’m already fully creeped out about that girl I hope she’ll be alright in the end…
I‘m so sorry but I’m travelling over the weekend (without computer) and forgot to set up the thread in advance
Just please keep reading everybody It will appear eventually.
I noticed you said in the beginning there shouldn’t be too much trouble jumping into this book even if you haven’t read the previous ones, would you all still say that’s true now that you’re on week 3?
I had 3 books I was reading for a few months and finished them all within the last week so I’m looking for another live book club to join haha
The books are fairly independent. As you can imagine, each one is centered around a murder that gets solved by the end. However, there is some degree of continuity between the books, in terms for the lives/relationship between the main characters.
Still, the author briefly introduces all the characters again each time. So I think that ideally, it’s best to read them in order (if you intend to read them all), but it’s definitely possible to join mid series, especially if you don’t care that much about the character relationships.
Hey all, just wanted to make sure that I don’t forget to post the new thread later (when I potentially start getting busy for the weekend) so I’m posting quite early today
Quick heads up that we are reading chapters 9 + 11 this week!
As some noticed already, it is a very short week. You are of course free to read ahead and jump into the last week, or wait for the crowd to join you in the speculations
Also, we will take a one-week break after this book and then immediately dive into the next one: 夏のレプリカ - Replaceable Summer - Reading starts from August 5th!
so thanks for reminding me!
I hope she’ll be alright in the end…
Thanks! I guess I need to stop posting these things from my phone as I am apparently unable to handle the threads properly on there… 
