Japanese mystery novelist Keigo Higashino dies of colon cancer at 68

Keigo Higashino, the acclaimed Japanese mystery novelist celebrated for works like 'The Miracles of the Namiya General Store' and 'The Devotion of Suspect X,' passed away on June 23 from colon cancer at the age of 68.

Born in Osaka in 1958, Higashino initially worked as an engineer at Denso Corporation after graduating with an electrical engineering degree. He began writing while employed and, after two rejections from the Edogawa Rampo Prize, finally debuted with his novel 'After School' in 1985. He resigned from his company the following year and moved to Tokyo to pursue writing full-time.

Higashino's career gained significant momentum with 'Secret,' which earned him the Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1998. He subsequently published a string of popular mystery novels, including 'Byakuyako' (Whiteout) and 'Mugenbana' (Phantom Bloom), spearheading a boom in mystery fiction in Japan from the 1990s onward.

His 2005 novel, 'The Devotion of Suspect X,' a complex tale of a genius physicist confronting a perfect crime orchestrated by a mathematically gifted teacher, won Japan's most prestigious popular literature award, the Naoki Prize. This novel is part of the popular 'Galileo' series, featuring physicist Manabu Yukawa solving bizarre cases. Several books in this series, including 'The Devotion of Suspect X,' 'Midsummer's Equation,' and 'Silent Parade,' were adapted into successful films, collectively grossing over 11.2 billion yen (approximately $72 million USD).

Higashino's works have achieved significant international recognition, with numerous translations published in South Korea and China. In Korea, the film adaptation of 'Secret' in 2002 boosted his profile. He received numerous accolades for his ability to blend popular appeal with high literary quality, including the Chuo Koron Literary Prize for 'The Miracles of the Namiya General Store,' the Shibata Renzaburo Award for 'Mugenbana,' and the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for Literature for 'The Closing Prayer.' He was also honored with the Kikuchi Hiroshi Prize in 2023 and the Japanese Mystery Literature Award last year. Higashino authored 105 books during his lifetime, with cumulative sales exceeding 100 million copies in Japan.

His final work, 'Eien no Kioku' (Eternal Memory), scheduled for release on July 5, will serve as his posthumous publication. The publisher, Bungeishunju, described it as the "106th book" and "the greatest mystery in the Galileo series' history," released in the year marking the 30th anniversary of the character's debut.

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Eternal Memory is his 106th book and will present the greatest mystery in the history of the Galileo series, exactly in the year marking the 30th anniversary of Galileo's appearance.