Always a Thief

Money, money, money 

Must be funny 

In the rich man's world 

"Money Money Money" (ABBA)

So many books I discuss here involve supernatural elements nowadays, so let's do a very grounded, realistic one this time...

Shylock no Kodomotachi ("Shylock's Children", 2006) is a book I have owned for about a decade now, but never finished. At least, I don't think I did: I honestly can't remember. I bought the book, because it was going to be the topic of discussion at a book club and couldn't find a copy to borrow and while I did read the first few chapters, I think I never finished, because I couldn't make it to that book club session after all or something like that. But I kept the book. A while back though, I was re-arranging my books and came across the book again, and because I couldn't remember whether I had finished it, I decided to look up a story summary on the internet, and I learned two surprising fact. One was that the author, Ikeido Jun, was actually the person who also wrote the Hanzawa Naoki novels, upon which the extremely succesful live-action series are based. I haven't seen the series myself, but anyone even somewhat familiar with Japanese dramas and popular culture the last few years should surely know about Hanzawa Naoki, as this series was not only popular as a thriller about the banking world, but it also spawned lots of memes (the faces!). In hindsight, the fact Shylock no Kodomotachi is also a book about the banking world should have tipped me off. The second surprising fact I learned was that Shylock no Kodomotachi was going to be adapted for the screen. Twice even! A television adaptation was planned for October 2022, while a film adaptation is going to follow in 2023. And because I am also one of those people who decided to read The Lord of the Rings when they first announced they were making the films, I decided that this time, I was going to read Shylock no Kodomotachi (and yes, I finished the book before the October 2022 drama aired).

Shylock no Kodomotachi introduces the reader to the many, many people who work at the Nagahara Branch Office of the Tokyo Daiichi Bank. The Nagahara Office is not located in the bustling financial heart of Tokyo, but in a somewhat quiet, semi-residential area, and its business focus is on small and medium-sized enterprises, serving as house bank and providing loans. While bankers always say they are here to provide valuable services to those in need, the individual parts of the great machine are in reality just there for themselves. For all employees here, the Nagahara Office is just one stop in the long journey as a banker: like with many great corporations in Japan, employees are reposted every few years to other offices, and depending on their performance, their reposting might also involve a promotion or reposting to a certain section of location of their liking, while those who underperform will probably not very much like their new position. Once you fall behind in the race for promotions compared to the people who started at the bank in the same year, you'll never be able to catch up, doomed to the one who 'didn't quite make it' until you retire. Some even have already given up, who know that each new reposting just means going to a similar job at a different office, but those are a minority, and many people here see the Nagahara Office as just one phase in a bigger adventure, and in order to advance one needs to perform. Those who do well are praised in the grand meetings, those who underperform are scolded in front of the others. It's in this stress-inducing environment that one day, as they are recounting all the cash money at the end of the business day, it is discovered a million yen in cash has gone missing. Money is recounted, the whole premise is searched but they can't find the money. The envelope that held the money is found, but the person on which it was found absolutely denies she stole the money and eventually, the money is found back at the office, but nobody knows why the money disappeared and who took it, yet the head of the office is eager to keep things as quiet as possible as this would ruin his future career. The direct superior of the person who was accused however, isn't quite ready to let things go and is determined to found out why the money had been taken.

Ikeido Jun has worked in a bank, and he has stated that this book is the turning point in his novelist career, showing him what to write in the future and this mode would also influence his big success that is the Hanzawa Naoki series. Shylock no Kodomotachi features an ensemble cast, and in each chapter, we follow a completely different character working at the Nagahara Branch Office, from the deputy chief of the office to a part-time teller.  Each of them deal with other problems, some worrying about their future reposting and willing to do everything to improve their evaluation to lower-level employees who just can't cope with the stress and are desperate to at least make this period's target goals. Because we follow a different character each time, we also see everyone through different eyes, and before long you'll have a good idea of all the major characters working at the Nagahara Office, and you'll be asked to pay attention too, as I think there are like twenty recurring people in the office alone, some of which you actually follow directly in one of the chapters, but most of them always seen through the eyes of a third person. I should probably mention at this point that Shylock no Kodomotachi is only a mystery novel for about thirty percent, while the rest is basically focused on the human drama that plays out at a bank. Many of the chapters in this book are not directly related to the missing million yen: Shylock no Kodomotachi's main focus is portraying the working environment of a Japanese bank and its employees, and this environment then also happens to serve as the setting of a mystery involving money gone missing. But the book doesn't really start focusing on the missing money until the second half of the book, and even then most of the chapters are about the focus character of that specific chapter and their personal lives and what the bank means to them. 

As you can guess from the set-up of the book, the mystery of the missing money is portrayed like a caleidoscope: each of the chapters, while focusing on a different character, will also give you glimpses in the background that tie in to the mystery of the missing money. Because these focal characters all work in different positions/have different personalities, you get insights from various angles, which can be interesting. I wouldn't call these insights "clues" per se, but together these little facts and character observations do paint the underlying circumstances that led to the missing money. Most of the mystery is revolved rather swiftly in the final three chapters though, and there's little time for the reader to really get puzzle-solving themselves, though the plot itself is interesting. The money goes missing, and is returned in the first quarter of the book, but until the finale, you don't really get to hear much about it again, and it's only at the end you understand that the novel was more focused in portraying the background that led to the theft, rather than having you solve the mystery yourself. That said, I do like the plot behind why the money was stolen and what was done with it: it is clear that Ikeido is familiar with the inner workings of a bank and how business is conducted there and shouldn't be expected to be able to solve this yourself based on the clues, for you'd need to be quite knowledgeable about banking products and how everything works in a branch office to be able to figure this out, but it's certainly a plot that sounds "realistic" within a proper banking setting, and the book certainly does a great job at presenting the background to the crime through the various character vignettes.

But I do think this book is best read as a novel about banking, rather than as mainly a mystery novel. It presents a very interesting peek at how these big Japanese companies work with people getting reposted every few years automatically, having to move from one location to another, living in company-owned living quarters and having each transfer connected to a possible promotion. But also showing the very "personal" approach of banks, or service-focused companies in Japan in general, where the salesmen do their rounds and visit some companies almost daily, sometimes with gifts, in the hopes of securing business with them. 

Shylock no Kodomotachi is definitely very different from what I usually read and it's also not a book I would immediately recommend, at least, not if you're looking for a puzzle plot mystery like most books discussed here. Shylock no Kodomotachi is mainly a human drama set in a bank, and it's really effective in portraying the lives and thoughts of a group of people working at a small bank in Japan. It also provides a minor mystery plot that make good use of its unique setting and Ikeido's own experience as a banker definitely helps sell the realistic background. But if you are looking for an interesting glimpse at Japanese banks (or similar large companies), the lives of their employees, and that mixed with a minor crime plot, Shylock no Kodomotachi can be fun.

Original Japanese title(s): 池井戸潤『シャイロックの子供たち』