[Simple Synopsis] The Perfect Insider (Slight Spoilers) [Hiroshi Mori / Kodansha Bunko]

"Among the numbers, only 7 is lonely."

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Assistant Professor Sohei Saikawa uses the connections of his seminar student, Moe Nishinosono, to hold a recreation trip on a remote island where the genius engineering doctor, Shiki Magata, is kept under house arrest.

The recreation, which included a BBQ, was a success, but that night, when Saikawa and Nishinosono visit the research facility, various accidents occur inside...

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N University Assistant Professor Sohei Saikawa holds a recreation trip twice a year as part of his seminar, where he and his students spend two or three nights together to deepen their friendships.

Usually, they go camping or to hot springs within the country, but this time, they use the connections of seminar student Moe Nishinosono to hold it on a remote island with a high-tech research facility where genius engineering doctor Shiki Magata is kept under house arrest.

The first day started peacefully with a BBQ with the seminar students, but that night, when Saikawa and Nishinosono visit the research facility, accidents occur one after another inside...

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I knew it was called a masterpiece in various places, and despite it being an older work, I still see reports of people finishing it on my timeline, so I read it with half-expectation and half-anxiety, but in the end, it was a work I was very satisfied with.

The tricks behind the serial murders and the disappearance of people at the high-tech research facility on the remote island seem simple yet are highly difficult, and seem meticulous yet dynamic.

Works that the majority call masterpieces are indeed masterpieces.

Works called masterpieces include The Devotion of Suspect X, which I reviewed previously, but

while both works naturally have excellent tricks and narrative development, The Devotion of Suspect X possesses human emotions and relationships between men and women that never change regardless of the era, while this work also features a near-future worldview that has not yet been fully realized even in the 21st century, so it will continue to be called a masterpiece and will keep gaining new readers in the future.

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Because robots, AI, and VR (virtual reality spaces) color the work, it doesn't feel old at all, despite being published over 25 years ago in December 1998, and as a result, it has been supported by readers to the extent that it has been reprinted over 80 times.

1998 was when I was a student, getting very excited about the France World Cup where the Japan national soccer team made its first appearance, and it is truly wonderful that a work published around that time still has content that captivates readers more than 25 years later.

The only thing in the work that feels old is the fact that the protagonist, Sohei Saikawa, is a heavy smoker who puffs away anytime and anywhere.

This work was very rewarding to read because it scatters tricks that utilize the reader's (my) imagination (assumptions) throughout various scenes.

※ In this work, there were two places where my assumptions were perfectly exploited, and (though I absolutely cannot) it is a work I would love to shout spoilers about regarding those points lol

And,

The overwhelming sense of power from the final boss (the mastermind)

When you read to the end, you clearly understand that Saikawa and Nishinosono were dancing in the palm of the final boss's hand.

I basically look for final bosses in games and novels that the protagonists cannot defeat no matter what they do—a level of strength that is on another dimension—and this work fits that perfectly.

As it is a major work with 11 chapters and over 500 pages, some may have hesitated to purchase it after seeing the thickness of the book, but there is no doubt that you will read it all in one sitting without any lulls.

Since this Saikawa & Nishinosono (S&M) series consists of 10 books in total, it is a work that makes me very excited to see if I can reach the level of the final boss within the subsequent nine books.

It is called a science-based mystery, but as someone who is strictly from a humanities background, I was able to get hooked on it, so I recommend it even to those who are allergic to science.

This is a series I want to continue reading in the future.

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