[Mystery Review] The Crow's Thumb by Shusuke Michio (2008)

The Crow's Thumb by Shusuke Michio

A feature-length mystery by Shusuke Michio, adapted into a 2012 film starring Hiroshi Abe.

Synopsis

Take, who lost his way in life after becoming a guarantor for a colleague's debt and now lives as a con artist, and Tetsu, who wandered into Take's life after finding himself on the streets due to his own entanglement with loan sharks. The lives of these two middle-aged men change completely when they meet Mahiro, a girl who became a pickpocket after her mother committed suicide due to debt. Her older sister, Yahiro, and her boyfriend, Kantaro, join them one after another, and they begin a family-like communal life. However, Take has a past where he took accounting documents from loan sharks to the police, earning the organization's grudge, and dark shadows begin to flicker over their peaceful days. The harassment escalates, and when their pet cat, Tosaka, is found in a horrific state, the five of them, pushed to their limits, plot a high-stakes con as revenge against the organization that destroyed their lives.

Overview/Impressions (No Spoilers)

Shusuke Michio is an author who won the Naoki Prize for 'Moon and Crab,' and 'The Crow's Thumb' was also nominated for the Naoki Prize. However, my first encounter with him was reading 'Summer of the Ubiquitous' in 2006, and the intensity was so strong that it made my vision blur and my head spin, so I spent about 15 years without picking up another book of his. I decided to pick up 'The Crow's Thumb' again, thinking that if it had been made into a movie, it might be a bit easier to read.

As it turned out, it was interesting enough that I regretted having been put off by my previous experience. Perhaps it has stronger elements of a con game than a mystery. Characters with unique personalities and special skills gather to carry out a large-scale plan. There is a certain comicality to their interactions, and you cannot help but hold your breath at the developments in the final act, wondering what was planned and what was accidental. Of course, once you finish reading, there is a sense of satisfaction that it was indeed a mystery. There may be parts that invite scrutiny, but I can guarantee that you will be impressed by the skill with which the foreshadowing is resolved. While I thought during reading that too many pages were devoted to how the five of them met, looking back after finishing, I realize it was not wasted at all. It is so well-crafted that important hints are hidden in the most mundane scenes, making me want to read it a second or third time. Since each of them has a dark past they would rather look away from, the flashbacks can be mentally painful, but it was necessary to explain the inevitability of their situation to make the reader empathize with the protagonists, who are con artists.

Overall Review (Heavy Spoilers)

Given the theme, I was prepared for the fact that it would definitely try to deceive the reader, but it easily jumped over my expectations. If there was anything, it was a betrayal in the bad sense. I read it assuming there was an informant among the five, so the moment I was plunged into despair just when I thought they had succeeded, I thought, 'I knew it!' However, that was all in the author's hands. There was a primitive surprise in seeing how the story turned out. It does not rely on narrative tricks, but honestly and squarely sets up a 'deception.' It is a trick that stands out precisely because the characters are con artists. From the middle to the end, as they start moving toward their plan, the interest level rises steadily. On top of that, such a large-scale twist awaits. It is a book that is inevitably highly rated at this point, but the final scene was also clever. Even though they had their reasons, they did get involved in wrongdoing. The conclusion, which leaves a lingering sense of loneliness even as the path to a fresh start opens up, is simply exquisite. It is certainly a happy ending for them to be living a modest daily life, but it is not a grand finale with a massive windfall. I think this balance of not overly glorifying people who have crawled up from adversity was the greatest common denominator for all readers.

Because of the twist, it is the type of work called a mystery, and it might not appeal to those who read mysteries solely for the puzzle-solving aspect, but it is excellent as an entertainment work. My image of the author Shusuke Michio has changed completely. If I had read this first, I would have explored his other works much sooner.

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