Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino; translated by Alexander O. Smith with Elye J. Alexander

Meticulous high-school math teacher Ishigami frequents the modest box-lunch shop Benten-tei because of his crush on Yasuko Hanaoka, a young mother who works there. Yonazawa and his wife Sayoko, who manage the shop, speculate regularly about Ishigami's visits, but Yasuko seems oblivious to his attention. Although she and her daughter Misato are Ishigami's apartment building neighbors, they've never spoken outside of the shop.

But when divorcee Yasuko Hanaoka is forced to kill her abusive ex-husband in defense of her daughter, Ishigami offers his help to dispose of the body and provide an alibi based on "perfect defense based on perfect logic," his plot to save her from arrest. As the police investigation proceeds, Ishigami isolated world is broken as detective Kusanagi reports going to college with him.  He mentions this to physicist Manabu Yukawa while playing chess and this prompts Yukawa to reconnect with Ishigami. Thus begins a intrigute cat and mouse dance.

Meanwhile Yasuko's past comes in the form of wealthy Mr. Kudo who used to visit her when she worked at a bar.  He has found her at her new job and works at winning Yasuko's heart but will her conscience to Yukawa allow herself to fall in love? 

As the police chip away at the alibi, it is slowly revealed that the math genius' devotion to Yasuko is based not only on love but also on the purity of committing the perfect crime. Yasuko has to remain a pawn to the math teacher's plan, but she wonders how long and how far he will go.

Higashino won Japan's Naoki Prize for Best Novel with this stunning thriller about miscarried human devotion, a bestseller in Japan.  Wow, was this an intense book.  Reminds of the Alfred Hitchcock movies where you just didn't know where the story would take you.  The ending chapters kept me guessing and had me gasping as the real story unfolded.  I think this may be one of the best books I've read so far this year.