According to NHK on Monday, renowned Japanese mystery novelist Keigo Higashino passed away from colorectal cancer on the 23rd of this month, at the age of 68.
His representative works include Journey Under the Midnight Sun, The Miracles of the Namiya General Store, The Devotion of Suspect X, among others.
Higashino was born in Osaka City in 1958 and graduated from Osaka Prefecture University with a degree in electrical engineering. After graduation, he worked as an engineer in a manufacturing company while starting his writing career. In 1985, he made his official debut by winning the Edogawa Rampo Prize for his locked-room murder mystery set in a girls’ high school, After School. In 1999, he won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for his novel Secret.
In 2005, he published The Devotion of Suspect X, which became one of his signature works. The story revolves around a high school math teacher with extraordinary mathematical talents who devises a perfect crime, while his old friend—a physicist—strives to uncover the truth. Blending an unexpected resolution with elements of pure love, the novel won both the Naoki Prize and the Honkaku Mystery Award.
Additionally, he wrote the “Kyoichiro Kaga“ series, the “Hotel Masquerade” series, and more. Centered on detective fiction, he published over 100 novels in total and is considered one of the most popular contemporary writers in Japan.
In 2012, he won the Chūōkōron Literary Prize for The Miracles of the Namiya General Store; in 2013, he received the Shibata Renzaburo Award for Fantasy Flower; and in 2014, he was awarded the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for Literature for When the Prayers End. In 2023, his total domestic book circulation in Japan surpassed 100 million copies, and he received the Medal with Purple Ribbon and the Kikuchi Kan Prize.
From 2009 to 2013, he served as the president of the Mystery Writers of Japan; from 2014 to 2019, he was a judge for the Naoki Prize. The newest full-length novel in the “Galileo” series, titled Everlasting Memory, was originally scheduled for publication on August 5.
According to Japanese media, in 2023, Higashino published his 100th personal work, and his domestic book circulation topped 100 million copies that same year. Currently, his works have been published in 41 countries and regions worldwide.