Keigo Higashino dies, tributes pour in on X and elsewhere; renowned for numerous hits including "Galileo," he switched careers from engineer

Keigo Higashino, one of Japan’s most popular mystery novelists, died of colon cancer on July 23 at age 68, Kodansha announced on the 27th.

News of his death sparked widespread mourning on X, with related terms trending and tributes pouring in from fellow authors and readers.

Higashino’s best-known works include the Galileo series, "The Devotion of Suspect X," "Before the Fall," and the Kaga Kyoichiro and Masquerade series.

His death is being widely felt across the publishing and mystery communities because of his outsized influence on Japanese genre fiction.