Keigo Higashino, the Japanese novelist behind some of the world’s bestselling mystery novels, has died from colorectal cancer aged 68.

His publisher, Kodansha, announced on X on Monday that Higashino died in the early hours of 23 July. His funeral was held privately, in accordance with his family’s wishes. The publishers added that his family would not accept condolence money, flowers, or telegrams.

Higashino’s death brings to a close one of the most successful careers in modern Japanese publishing. Over four decades, he wrote 106 novels, sold about 109 million copies in Japan, and built a readership that stretched far beyond his home country.

His books have been published in 41 countries and regions, while many of his best-known titles were adapted into hit films and television dramas.

Novels like Journey Under the Midnight Sun, The Miracles of the Namiya General Store, the Detective Galileo series, and the Detective Kaga series were translated into multiple languages and found large audiences across China, South Korea, and other parts of Asia, before reaching readers in Europe and North America.

The Devotion of Suspect X , a murder mystery about a brilliant mathematician who helps his neighbour cover up a killing before becoming locked in a battle of wits with Detective Galileo, has been adapted into Japan's 2008 film Suspect X, South Korea's Perfect Number (2012), China's The Devotion of Suspect X (2017), India's Tamil-language Kolaigaran (2019) and the Hindi-language Netflix film Jaane Jaan (2023).

Other novels also travelled across borders, inspiring the Hindi crime thriller Monica, O My Darling (2022), based on Burutasu No Shinzou (Heart of Brutus), while his novel Himitsu (Naoko) was adapted into the 1999 Japanese film of the same name and the 2007 French-English film The Secret (Si j'étais toi), starring David Duchovny.

Born in Osaka on 4 February 1958, Higashino studied electrical engineering at Osaka Prefecture University and worked as an engineer before turning to writing full-time. He made his debut in 1985 when After School won the Edogawa Rampo Prize, one of Japan’s leading awards for mystery fiction, reported NHK.

Among his most enduring creations was physicist Manabu Yukawa, better known as Detective Galileo, whose scientific approach to solving crimes formed the basis of a bestselling novel series as well as several television dramas and films starring Masaharu Fukuyama.

Other novels, including Journey Under the Midnight Sun, Newcomer and Masquerade Hotel, also led to successful screen adaptations.

His 2005 novel The Devotion of Suspect X won both the Naoki Prize and the Honkaku Mystery Award in 2006 and became one of his best-known works outside Japan. It was shortlisted for the Edgar Award for best novel in the US, while Newcomer was nominated for the UK's International Dagger in 2019, making Higashino the first Japanese writer to be nominated for both honours.

During his career, Higashino received the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, the Chuo Koron Prize for Literature, the Eiji Yoshikawa Prize for Literature, the Kikuchi Kan Prize, the Japan Mystery Literature Grand Prize and Japan’s Medal with Purple Ribbon, according to Oricon News.

His final novel, Eien no Kioku, will be published posthumously on 5 August.

Takuya Kimura, who starred as detective Kosuke Nitta in the Masquerade Hotel films, wrote on Instagram: “Thank you for entrusting the role of Kosuke Nitta to me. May you rest in peace.”

Fukuyama wrote on X that he still could not bring himself to say goodbye, writing: “As someone who has lived as one of the inhabitants of Professor Higashino's stories, I have always felt very close to the life he poured into his works.

“I feel that his spirit is still here with us. As someone who lives in his stories, and as one of his readers, I hope to continue being captivated by the worlds he created.”