Six Four cover art

Six Four

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Six Four

By: Hideo Yokoyama
Narrated by: Richard Burnip
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Six Four. The nightmare no parent could endure. The case no detective could solve. The twist no listener could predict.

For five days in January 1989, the parents of a seven-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl sat and listened to the demands of their daughter's kidnapper. They would never learn his identity. They would never see their daughter again.

For the 14 years that followed, the Japanese public listened to the police's apologies. They would never forget the botched investigation that became known as Six Four. They would never forgive the authorities their failure. For one week in late 2002, the press officer attached to the police department in question confronted an anomaly in the case.

He could never imagine what he would uncover. He would never have looked if he'd known what he would find.

©2012 Hideo Yokoyama (P)2016 Quercus Publishing Ltd Crime Thrillers International Mystery & Crime Mystery Police Procedural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Thriller Crime

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Father Paolo Baldi Mysteries cover art
The Miracles of the Namiya General Store cover art
The Predators cover art
The Black Echo: Special Edition cover art
Last Gasp cover art
One Man Crusade cover art
Past Caring cover art
Wicked Game cover art
Speaks the Nightbird cover art
The Murder Wall cover art
The Lost cover art
Not Alone: First Encounter cover art
Good Girls Don't Die cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
I only just got through this. At 24 hours this book is way too long. I listened to it on double speed just to get to the end. There is the possibility of a good story in here somewhere, if you removed all of the stuff about press relations and just focused on the historical kidnapping and the main policeman's missing daughter, it would be much better.

I liked the narrator's clipped style. I think it's suited the Japanese translation. but he goes too slowly, at 1.5 times speed. it sounds as quick as most normal narrators.

In need of a serious edit

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Had looked forward to something different but found it to be a relatively slow and sometimes confusing 'political' study rather than a 'crime thriller'. Perhaps something was lost in translation but...

Disappointed...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

A very interesting book that explores many aspects of human nature, and the meaning of serving within an organization or a society that demands subservience to superiors and devalues individuality, topics that are expressed sometimes with great eloquence others with mixed success because of the demands of the story line.

The main character is bullied and ostracised in a manner that I think most western organizations would not tolerate, he is always conflicted with his duty and his personal needs and putting those needs in the background for the greater good, for a second we see him strive for a modicum of individuality but is soon stifled and put in his place.

The thriller part of the story is well developed and very interesting but stretched out for too long because of the existential angst of the main character.

A good police story with a clouded moral message that I think was lost in translation.

The reading is given in a monotone that is a bit disconcerting given all the passions in the story.

What we lost in translation is found in revenge.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I think the story’s good - but I’m only an hour and a half in and I can’t stand the narrator’s stilted, pompous voice. Such a shame!

AWFUL narrator!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I’m sure the book had potential, but the narrator made for an unbearable listen. His accent and cadence did not suit the story

Poor Narrator choice

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

If you could sum up Six Four in three words, what would they be?

Slow fast awesome

Who was your favorite character and why?

Mikami, whose decency and honour shone

What about Richard Burnip’s performance did you like?

Laboured

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I felt happier at the end

Any additional comments?

It's dreadfully slow and I nearly gave up, but if you can hang on through the relentless tedium in the first half, the story is suddenly intriguing and then more stuff happens and I found it hypnotic. I'm so glad I stuck with it.

Wow

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Six Four is a good story, I found the narration a bit harder to deal with not bad but it took 2/3 of the book to see the voice fitting with the story.
Don’t let this put you off it builds well and is a worthy listen

Good story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I couldn't finish this I'm ashamed to say. Could be the cultural differences but I found it hard to get into the mindset and get emotionally involved with the characters. I got really fed up of the political stuff as it felt very repetitive. I also struggled with keeping track of who was who, however that could easily be down to the fact that I am unfamiliar with the style of names.

Couldn't finish

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Without doubt a unexpected twist 4/5ths of the way into the book. But reeaaaallly, it was a long trudge to get to that point.
I feel I know more about office politics in the Japanese police force than I do about my own. The detail is frankly over detailed. It's a dense and at times soporific book that has extensive sub plots that are over long and contribute only a nub to the overall tale. The writing style is lacey with almost fractal detail. It felt at times like a screenplay with set notes.
Overall - a great story, but literally spoilt by the effort to put granular detail and emotion into the cast.
Unless you've got a lot of spare time, I'd skip it or listen to the abridged version.

23 hours of my life I will never get back.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Performance is not the best and my god does it take a long time to get in two but the eventual reveal will be worth it for most. Nice contrast to western mystery novels.

Interesting, different detective novel.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews