Kanae Minato
Life. She started writing in her thirties. Her first novel "Confessions" became a bestseller and won the Japanese Booksellers Award. In youth she was an avid fan of mystery novels of Edogawa Ranpo, Maurice Leblanc, Agatha Christie, Keigo Higashino, Miyuki Miyabe and Yukito Ayatsuji. She has been described in Japan as "the queen of "iyamisu"." "Iyamisu" (eww mystery) is a subgenre of mystery fiction which deals with grisly episodes and the dark side of human nature. Readers blurt out "eww" when they are reading "iyamisu" novels. The term was created in 2006 by the mystery critic Aoi Shimotsuki . There has been an "iyamisu" boom in Japan since around 2012. Kanae Minato, Mahokaru Numata and Yukiko Mari are regarded as representatives of the genre in Japan. The back cover blurb of the Japanese edition of "Gone Girl", published in June 2013, was "One of the best "iyamisu" novels from overseas." The English edition of Minato's "Confessions", published in August 2014, was described by a critic as "the "Gone Girl" of Japan." "Wall Street Journal" selected "Confessions" as one of the 10 best mysteries of 2014.