Influenced by the fic listed above, but arguably much more influenced by pulp crime novels by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. The mystery is intriguing enough to keep you interested but not really the focus of the story. There are a whole lot of similes, but they're not cheesy and always serve to illustrate the characters or the situation. All descriptive dialogue is streamlined to paint a mental picture without getting too long or distracting. The characterization is amazingly well-done here. You almost could say that the mystery is a framing device for a study of Tomo and Torako's close - sometimes very close - working relationship, as it is examined in depth. The character interactions all feel very realistic. Since the police department has to be populated with workers and the story has to be populated with suspects, there are a lot of OCs, but all of them feel totally natural and none of them hog much screen time. The fic somewhat inherits The Other Takino's sense of humor, although it's less Internet-y and pervy and more subtle. Super-super-recommended.
FanficRecs Comment by Sporkaganza
Influenced by the fic listed above, but arguably much more influenced by pulp crime novels by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. The mystery is intriguing enough to keep you interested but not really the focus of the story. There are a whole lot of similes, but they're not cheesy and always serve to illustrate the characters or the situation. All descriptive dialogue is streamlined to paint a mental picture without getting too long or distracting. The characterization is amazingly well-done here. You almost could say that the mystery is a framing device for a study of Tomo and Torako's close - sometimes very close - working relationship, as it is examined in depth. The character interactions all feel very realistic. Since the police department has to be populated with workers and the story has to be populated with suspects, there are a lot of OCs, but all of them feel totally natural and none of them hog much screen time. The fic somewhat inherits The Other Takino's sense of humor, although it's less Internet-y and pervy and more subtle. Super-super-recommended.