TOKYO - A new novel in Keigo Higashino's best-selling Galileo mystery series went on sale Wednesday, less than two weeks after the hugely popular Japanese author died of bowel cancer at age 68.
Fans gathered for a midnight countdown at bookseller Kinokuniya's flagship store in Tokyo's Shinjuku district, where customers collected reserved copies of "Eien no Kioku" (eternal memory).
The release brought Higashino's total number of published works to 106. It is the 11th installment in the Galileo series and is billed as its "final mystery."
The series follows genius physicist Manabu Yukawa as he solves baffling cases.
At an event before the countdown, editors who had worked with Higashino over the years shared memories of the author.
Junko Kato, 62, an office worker from Yokohama, said she had taken the next day off because she "can't stop once I start reading."
"It's sad to think there will be no more new releases, but I want to reread his works again and again," she said.
The Galileo series has a cumulative print run of more than 16.6 million copies. "The Devotion of Suspect X," the series' first full-length novel, won the prestigious Naoki Prize in 2006, while TV dramas and films starring actor and singer Masaharu Fukuyama also became hits.
Higanshino's popularity extended beyond Japan to other parts of Asia, including China and South Korea.
