(Text/Observer Network Guo Guanghao)
According to a report by the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun on July 27, the famous Japanese novelist Hayakawa Keigo passed away in the early hours of the 23rd due to colorectal cancer, at the age of 68. His representative works include 'White Night', 'The Gift Shop', and 'Suspect X: The Affair'.
On March 18, 2025, Dongye attended the award ceremony for the Japanese Mystery Literature Grand Prize. This was one of his few public events in recent years.
Tohei was born in Osaka in 1958 and graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering at Osaka Prefectural University. After graduation, he worked as an engineer in a manufacturing company while also beginning to write. In 1985, he won the Edogawa Rampo Award for his mystery novel "After School," which set its plot in a girls' high school and depicted a murder case in a secret room. In 1999, he received the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for his novel "Secret."
Published in 2005 and becoming a masterpiece, "The Suspect X: The Perfect Crime" tells the story of a high school teacher with mathematical talents who plans a perfect crime. His old friend, a physicist, challenges this crime. This work combines unexpected truths with elements of pure love, and ultimately won both the Noda Prize and the Bungo Mystery Award.
In addition, he also created works such as the "Kaga Kōichi" series and the "Masquerade Restaurant" series. Focusing on detective novels, he has published over 100 novels in total, making him one of the most popular contemporary writers in Japan.
In 2012, he won the Central Public Art Award for his work "Yu Yu Galleria"; in 2013, he received the Shibata Ryōzō Prize for "Mugen Hana"; and in 2014, he won the Yosakawa Yasunaga Literary Award for his work "When Prayer Ends". In 2023, the total number of copies of his works sold in Japan exceeded 100 million, and he received the Shishō Hokushi Award and the Kikuchi Kan Prize.
From 2009 to 2013, he served as the president of the Japan Mystery Writers Association; from 2014 to 2019, he was a judge for the Naoki Prize. The latest novel in the “Galileo” series is scheduled to be published on August 5: “Eternal Memories”.
