Classmates

Classmates is a campus mystery novel by Keigo Higashino, written after After School won the Edogawa Rampo Prize; the Japanese original was published in 1993. The story begins on a Monday in May: senior high school girl Yukiko Miyamae suddenly dies in a traffic accident, but the circumstances of her death and the questions she leaves behind are unbearable to her classmate and boyfriend, Shoichi Nishihara. Convinced that the teacher who chased after Yukiko must be involved, Shoichi publicly confronts his homeroom teacher, Mr. Misaki, in front of the whole class—an act that acts like a fuse, throwing the entire school into turmoil. Not long after, Mr. Misaki is found dead on campus, and Shoichi becomes the prime suspect overnight. To clear his name, he must navigate police questioning, classmates' suspicions, and teachers' scrutiny; yet his evasiveness about his relationship with Yukiko makes the truth even harder to see. As the investigation deepens, the old wounds of illness caused by environmental pollution in the Nishihara family, corporate responsibility, and family secrets surface layer by layer, and the bonds between these so-called classmates turn out to be more than simple friendship. The book captures both the rage of youth against the hypocrisy of the adult world and the irrational impulses, concealment, and hurt of adolescence. Higashino has called it a crucial turning point in his writing career, and his later analysis of human nature and society is already visible in this early work.