The Devotion of Suspect X, by Keigo Higashino

This crime story set in Tokyo and translated from the original Japanese is a clever twist on the usual whodunit murder mystery. Rather than the reader guessing who is responsible for the murder—you know that in the early pages—the author introduces a mind game between two geniuses, one a mathematician trying to protect the culprit and the other a physicist assisting the police in solving the crime. Mathematical puzzling is key to this battle of wits, but one doesn’t have to be a mathematician to appreciate the elegance of this device as the drama unfolds. A great crime story for those who prefer intellectual teases to violence or fast-paced thrills.