Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama review – riveting, slow-burn thriller

Hideo Yokoyama’s bestseller combines classic crime elements with a twisting journey to the heart of Japan’s police establishment

Hideo Yokoyama’s Six Four comes garlanded with expectations: it sold a million copies in six days in Japan, according to its publisher; and Red Riding quartet author David Peace, no less, calls it “simply one of the best crime novels I have ever read”.

The premise is gripping: in 1989, a seven-year-old girl was abducted and murdered, her kidnapper escaping with the 20m yen ransom. The culprit has never been found. Fourteen years later, an anomaly in the case is discovered by police press director Yoshinobu Mikami, setting off a sequence of events he never expected.

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