The Devotion of Suspect X

Yasuko Hanaoka is the second of the three point-of-view characters. She is a divorced single mother who has a daughter named Misato. Yasuko works at a lunchbox shop called Benten-tei, but she previously worked as a club hostess at Club Marian. Several characters describe Yasuko as pretty and personable, though she characterizes herself as having “no great allure” and “hardly any redeeming qualities” (283). She has been married twice; her first husband is the father of her daughter, while her second husband, Shinji Togashi, developed an alcohol addiction and became abusive during their marriage. Although she has since divorced him, he often harasses her and extorts her for money, and she has been forced to move several times in order to avoid him.

Yasuko lives in a society that often dismisses the concerns of women. This underlying societal gender discrimination contributes to the times when she gave in to Togashi’s demands, and this cultural imbalance also explains her impulsive decision to kill him; she feels that she has no legal support and therefore no other choice. Simultaneously, Yasuko has a narrow, self-centered view of life, primarily focusing on her problems and her daughter’s, but no one else’s. This is why she elects to ignore Ishigami’s clear infatuation with her from the beginning, pretending not to notice until the situation forces her to face it.

Though Yasuko’s daughter Misato is a minor character, she takes several crucial actions in the final third of the novel to develop the key moments of the plot. First, she notes Yasuko’s potentially reckless behavior in dating another man after Ishigami risked everything to save her. Second, in an “off-screen” moment that is recounted secondhand, she attempts to die by suicide, and this action implies that she feels a deep sense of guilt over her own involvement in Togashi’s death. The novel also suggests that this moment finally forces Yasuko to acknowledge the impact of her decisions, and in the closing scene, Yasuko takes responsibility for her own actions. However, the novel implicitly questions whether she makes the right decision, and the deleterious effect of her choice on Ishigami contributes to the author’s examination of The Morality of Love and Self-Sacrifice.

Shinji Togashi is Yasuko’s abusive ex-husband and the victim of the murder mystery at the center of the novel. However, he is a minor character whose only real contribution to the plot is his initial appearance and death. He was a successful businessman until he was caught embezzling company funds. After that, he developed an alcohol addiction and became violent, compelling Yasuko to divorce him. He is depicted as a cruel, selfish person who feels no shame or remorse about his abusive treatment of Yasuko or his veiled threats to Misato. After his death, the narrative does not expand on his character or background. In some mystery novels, the victim’s history becomes a crucial component to the investigation. In this case, however, as the final plot twist reveals, Togashi is not even the victim that the police are truly investigating, and this detail renders his appearance and characterization even less important. His sole purpose is to be the catalyst for the conflicts that follow his death.

Detective Shunpei Kusanagi is a police detective with the Tokyo Police, and the third of the three primary point-of-view characters. He is a major character who appears throughout the Detective Galileo series, both in the short stories and in the novels. He also has a junior detective partner named Kishitani. 

Kusanagi is intelligent, observant, and intuitive. He can often sense when something is not quite right in a case, though he cannot always articulate why. When he encounters a particularly difficult case, he often turns to his friend, Yukawa, whom he has known since college.

Kusanagi is conscientious and believes in justice. In contrast with some of his colleagues, Kusanagi is determined to uncover the truth about Togashi’s death and Yasuko’s involvement, even when it would be easiest to simply accept Ishigami’s confession. He also values his friendship with Yukawa; this aspect of Kusanagi’s character is apparent in his concern over Yukawa’s emotional involvement in the case, and when he agrees to keep Yukawa’s deductions about Ishigami secret. However, the novel makes it clear that he would ultimately choose justice over his friendship if he were forced to; for example, he explicitly states that he will arrest Yasuko if she does not turn herself in, despite his promise to Yukawa.