Her smash hit novel Out was the first of her works to be translated into English and other languages. She has written in a range of genres, including thirteen full-length novels and three volumes short stories.

Natsuo Kirino is a leading figure in the recent boom of female writers of Japanese mysteries. Some of Higashino’s other works, available in English translation, include The Name of the Game is a Kidnapping and Salvation of a Saint. Keigo Higashino is one of the most popular fiction authors in Japan. His novel Naoko was awarded the Mystery Writers of Japan prize in 1999 and his work The Devotion of Suspect X was the second highest selling book in all of Japan when it was published, winning the Naoki Prize for Best Novel. His novel The Decagon House Murders, published in 1987, is widely accepted as ushering in the modern era of shin-honkaku. He writes in the new traditionalist style. Yukito Ayatsuji, a pseudonym for author Naoyuki Uchida, is one of the founders of Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan.

Here are some classic and contemporary authors of Japanese mysteries, both in the shin-honkaku and other styles. Contemporary voices are adding more psychological twists, creating a modern style that pays homage to classic mysteries. Since 1955, the Japanese Mystery Writers Associations awards the Edogawa Rampo Prize to that year’s best mystery, an award similar to the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award. In Japan, traditional plot-driven puzzle mysteries are known as shin-honkaku, a genre that continues to be popular. Just as the works of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbø have popularized Scandinavian noir to fans in many countries, so too have Japanese mysteries begun to increase in popularity worldwide.

Agenzia A by Seichō Matsumoto