The first two-thirds or so of the novel paint him as, at worst, a victim of unfortunate circumstances who was driven to extreme actions to take revenge on someone who seriously wronged him.

Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Nonoguchi himself is a rather nasty example of this trope.

It's so effective that it takes a very long time for Kaga to realize Nonoguchi's trick. It turns out Nonoguchi (who is a writer and aware of this trope) poisoned the cat himself and pinned it on Hidaka in the account he wrote, in order to paint him as a terrible person and color people's impression of Hidaka.

Hidaka's Establishing Character Moment is poisoning a cat who was messing up his backyard. All of the horrible things he did are lies by Nonoguchi to tarnish his reputation. In the end, it's revealed that none of this happened and that the real Hidaka was most likely a nice and decent person. He kills a neighbor's cat by feeding them poisoned food, and shamelessly uses and blackmails his friend who trusted him, plagiarizing his work for his own profit, and his wife committed suicide due to his horrible treatment of her and Nonoguchi. Asshole Victim: Hidaka, the murder victim in the novel, is portrayed as an incredibly unpleasant and nasty person.This work contains examples of the following: The novel begins with Nonoguchi as the viewpoint character, but during the next chapter when the viewpoint switches to Kaga, it becomes apparent that Nonoguchi's account may not be entirely honest. When Osamu arrives, he and Hidaka's wife Rie find Hidaka dead inside his office.Īs it turns out, Kyoichiro Kaga is assigned to the case, and he and Nonoguchi are acquainted since both taught at the same school. Sometime after Osamu leaves, he receives a phone call from Hidaka asking him to come back to his house because he has something important to ask him. The novel begins with a written account by Osamu Nonoguchi (which actually exists in-universe), a writer of children's books, as he recounts the day he visited his best friend and famous author, Kunihiko Hidaka, who is about to move to Vancouver the following day. It is part of a series of books by Higashino starring the detective Kyoichiro Kaga. Malice is a mystery novel written by famous Japanese author Keigo Higashino and published in 2014.

Malice by keigo higashino