If I'm remembering my reading of The Devotion of Suspect X many years ago correctly, it seems like Higashino is way more interest in the how and the why of a murder mystery than he is the who, and I love that for him. 

Malice has twists and turns in a way that isn't quite for shock value. It's more meticulous in unraveling the various threads of the mystery, leading you down paths that are dead ends or branch off in totally different directions. After the first third of the book, I had no idea where Higashino was going with the story or how, I was just along for the ride and enjoyed it immensely.

The only let down for me was the audiobook narrator, my man was way too American to be hired for this. If you don't understand that <i>tsu</i> is a syllable in itself and has a specific pronunciation (eg. it's Ha-tsu-ko, not Hat-su-ko), then don't narrate novels translated from Japanese! Hire people who at the very least will actually pronounce Japanese names properly! I WILL die on this hill!