Japanese best-selling mystery writer Keigo Higashino, whose translated works have been shortlisted for literary awards overseas, has died. He was 68.
Higashino’s novel “The Devotion of Suspect X,” released in 2005 in Japan, received the prestigious Naoki Prize.
It was later translated into English and was shortlisted as one of the best mystery novels in 2011 by the judges of the prestigious Edgar Awards.
The novel was expanded into a popular series that was also adapted for TV and movies.
He was also shortlisted for the Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation organized by the London-based Crime Writers’ Association.
Many of his 100 or so mystery novels were hugely popular and in 2023 total sales of all of his novels exceeded 100 million in Japan.
He was awarded the government’s Medal with Purple Ribbon that year.
