Keigo Higashino dies at 68: A reading guide to 13 essential novels by Japan’s master mystery writer

Japanese author Keigo Higashino, best known for his mystery novels, died of colorectal cancer on July 23. He was 68.

Higashino has written 106 books and his novel The Devotion of Suspect X is a global blockbuster bestseller through translations into several languages. Many of his works have been translated into English since then. He was awarded the prestigious Naoki Prize in 2006 for the novel, along with the Honkaku Mystery Awards. He served as the president of the Mystery Writers of Japan from 2009 until 2013.

His new novel, Eternal Memory, is scheduled for publication next month.

Here is a short guide list to Higashino’s essential works (information sourced from publishers):

The Devotion of Suspect X, translated by Alexander O Smith

Yasuko lives a quiet life, working in a Tokyo bento shop, a good mother to her only child. But when her ex-husband appears at her door without warning one day, her comfortable world is shattered.

When Detective Kusanagi of the Tokyo Police tries to piece together the events of that day, he finds himself confronted by the most puzzling, mysterious circumstances he has ever investigated. Nothing quite makes sense, and it will take a genius to understand the genius behind this particular crime.

Guilt, translated by Giles Murray

A body has been found on a Central Tokyo riverbank, and Homicide Detective Godai of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is assigned to investigate. The victim is identified as a lawyer, Kensuke Shiraishi, and Godai’s investigations lead him to one Tatsuro Kuraki, who ends up confessing not only to the lawyer’s murder, but also to another one from 30 years ago – for which another man was arrested and died in custody before trial. Kuraki’s confession neatly resolves two cases, but there is just one problem: Detective Godai doesn’t believe him.

What’s more, there are two other people who can’t accept Kuraki’s confession. One is the son of Kuraki, the professed murderer; the other is the daughter of Shiraishi, the victim.

As they get closer to the truth, it becomes clear that the link between the two murders is murkier and more complicated than they could possibly have imagined – and so is the line between innocence and guilt.

Malice, translated by Alexander O Smith

Acclaimed bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is found brutally murdered in his home on the night before he’s planning to leave Japan and relocate to Vancouver. His body is found in his office, in a locked room, within his locked house, by his wife and his best friend, both of whom have rock-solid alibis. Or so it seems.

Police Detective Kyochiro Kaga recognises Hidaka’s best friend. Years ago, when they were both teachers, they were colleagues at the same high school. Kaga went on to join the police force while Osamu Nonoguchi left to become a full-time writer, though with not nearly the success of his friend Hidaka. But Kaga thinks something is a little bit off with Nonoguchi’s statement and investigates further, ultimately executing a search warrant on Nonoguchi’s apartment. There he finds evidence that shows that the two writers’ relationship was very different from the one they claimed. Nonoguchi confesses to the murder, but that’s only the beginning of the story.

Salvation of a Saint, translated by Alexander O Smith with Elye J Alexander

When a man is discovered dead by poisoning in his empty home his beautiful wife, Ayane, immediately falls under suspicion. All clues point to Ayane being the logical suspect, but how could she have committed the crime when she was hundreds of miles away?

As Tokyo police detective Kusanagi tries to unpick a seemingly unrelated sequence of events he finds himself falling for Ayane. When his judgement becomes dangerously clouded his assistant must call on an old friend for help; it will take a genius to unravel the most spectacular web of deceit they have ever faced…

Invisible Helix, translated by Giles Murray

The body of a young man is found floating in Tokyo Bay. But his death was no accident – Ryota Uetsuji was shot. He’d been reported missing the week before by his live-in girlfriend Sonoka Shimauchi, but when detectives from the Homicide Squad go to interview her, she is nowhere to be found. She’s taken time off from work, and clothes and effects are missing from the apartment they shared. And when the detectives learn that she was the victim of domestic abuse, they presume that she was the killer. But her alibi is airtight – she was hours away in Kyoto when Ryota disappeared, forcing Detectives Kusanagi and Utsumi to restart their investigation.

But if Sonoko didn’t kill her abusive lover, then who did? A thin thread of association leads them to their old consultant, brilliant physicist Manabu Yukawa, known in the department as “Detective Galileo.” With Sonoko still missing, the detectives investigate other threads of association – an eccentric artist, who was Sonoko’s mother figure after her own single mother passed; and an older woman who is the owner of a hostess club. And how is Sonoko continuing to stay one step ahead of the police searching for her?

It’s up to Galileo to find the nearly hidden threads of history and coincidence that connect the people around the bloody murder – which, surprisingly, connect to his own traumatic past – to unravel not merely the facts of the crime but the helix that ties them all together.

Journey Under the Midnight Sun, translated by Alexander O Smith with Joseph Reeder

When a man is found murdered in an abandoned building in Osaka in 1973, unflappable detective Sasagaki is assigned to the case. He begins to piece together the connection of two young people who are inextricably linked to the crime: the dark, taciturn son of the victim and the unexpectedly captivating daughter of the main suspect. Over the next 20 years, we follow their lives as Sasagaki pursues the case – which remains unsolved – to the point of obsession.

A Midsummer’s Equation, translated by Alexander O Smith

When a man’s body is discovered at the base of some cliffs in the small resort town of Hari Cove, the police at first suspect a tragic accident, a misstep that cost the man his life. However, when the victim is found to have been a former policeman and that the cause of death was actually carbon monoxide poisoning, they begin a murder investigation.

Manabu Yukawa, the physicist known as “Detective Galileo”, is in Hari Cove to speak at a conference on a planned underwater mining operation, and finds himself drawn into the case. Did the murder have something to do with the fight of the small community to rebuild itself, or does it have its roots in the town's history?

The Final Curtain, translated by Giles Murray

A decade ago, Tokyo Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga went to collect the ashes of his recently deceased mother. Years before, she ran away from her husband and son without explanation or any further contact, only to die alone in an apartment far away, leaving her estranged son with many unanswered questions.

Now in Tokyo, Michiko Oshitani is found dead many miles from home. Strangled to death, left in the bare apartment rented under a false name by a man who has disappeared without a trace. Oshitani lived far away in Sendai, with no known connection to Tokyo – and neither her family nor friends have any idea why she would have gone there.

Hers is the second strangulation death in that approximate area of Tokyo – the other was a homeless man, killed and his body burned in a tent by the river. As the police search through Oshitani’s past for any clue that might shed some light, one of the detectives reaches out to Detective Kaga for advice. As the case unfolds, an unexpected connection emerges between the murder (or murders) now and the long-ago case of Detective Kaga’s missing mother.

A Death in Tokyo, translated by Giles Murray

On the Nihonbashi Bridge in Tokyo stands the statue of a mythic beast – a kirin. One evening a man staggers onto the bridge and collapses beneath the winged creature. The patrolman on watch goes to rouse the man, who he presumes to be drunk – only to discover that the man had been stabbed in the chest. He is dead.

Meanwhile, a young man named Yashima is injured in a car accident nearby while trying to flee from the police. Found on him is the wallet of the murdered man.

But is he actually responsible for the crime? What is his connection to the victim? And why did the dying man drag himself from the crime scene to the Nihonbashi Bridge? Tokyo Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga must piece together the answers to all of these questions in order to find the killer, but each answer he finds seems to throw up more questions

Newcomer, translated by Giles Murray

Detective Kyochiro Kaga of the Tokyo Police Department has just been transferred to a new precinct in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. Newly arrived, but with a great deal of experience, Kaga is promptly assigned to the team investigating the murder of a woman. But the more he investigates, the greater number of potential suspects emerge. It isn’t long before it seems nearly all the people living and working in the business district of Nihonbashi have a motive for murder. To prevent the culprit from eluding justice, Kaga must unravel all the secrets surrounding a complicated life. Buried somewhere in the woman’s past, in her family history, and the last few days of her life is the clue that will lead to the murderer.

Silent Parade, translated by Giles Murray

A popular young girl disappears without a trace, her skeletal remains discovered three years later in the ashes of a burned-out house. There’s a suspect and compelling circumstantial evidence of his guilt, but no concrete proof. When he isn’t indicted, he returns to mock the girl's family. And this isn’t the first time he’s been suspected of the murder of a young girl; nearly 20 years ago he was tried and released due to lack of evidence. Chief Inspector Kusanagi of the Homicide Division of the Tokyo Police worked both cases.

The neighbourhood in which the murdered girl lived is famous for an annual street festival, featuring a parade with entries from around Tokyo and Japan. During the parade, the suspected killer dies unexpectedly. His death is suspiciously convenient, but the people with all the best motives have rock-solid alibis. Chief Inspector Kusanagi knows that once again there is only one person who can solve this string of seemingly impossible murders: his college friend, Physics professor and occasional police consultant Manabu Yukawa, known as Detective Galileo…

The Name of the Game is Kidnapping, translated by Jan Mitsuko Cash

Battle-tested project leader at a PR firm and slippery bachelor, Sakuma sees himself as a player. His smug self-regard doesn't seem entirely unfounded, both in love and at work. When his idea for a mini-theme park is dismissed as too costly and vacuous at the last minute by a major client, he seems to have met his match.

Katsuragi, an heir and executive at the global car maker, Nissei Auto, is back from a marketing stint in the US with an authentic conviction that everything is a game. Once the man's daughter by a former mistress teams up with Sakuma so she can come into her inheritance in an expeditious manner – Juri is indeed her father’s flesh and blood – the game is good to go!

And the name of this game is kidnapping!

The Keeper of the Camphor Tree, translated by Jordan Taylor

When a run of bad luck lands Reito in prison, about to be sentenced, a distant aunt he has never met offers him a surprising way out: he must become the next keeper of the camphor tree.

In his strange new job, Reito welcomes the people coming by nightfall to commune with the tree, all of whom are lost and all in need of something. There is the stern, middle-aged man who hums to the tree for hours; and his glamorous daughter, who has been secretly following him. Then there is the rich, disaffected young man who seems to come grudgingly, with no faith that the tree will even help.

What is the secret of the camphor tree? Can its power be more than just a myth?

Reito begs his aunt Chifune to explain, but she assures him that when he is ready for them, the answers will come to him.