Deductive-reasoning fictions: An eye for detail

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A large number of Japanese deductive-reasoning novels have been translated into Chinese. (GT/Liao Danlin)

Deductive-reasoning fiction, originally developed from detective novels, has become the most popular genre of Japanese literature. With the deductive-reasoning culture spreading from Japan to China through literature, cartoons, television series and films since the beginning of the century, the number of Chinese fans as well as writers is growing fast. And August is filled with new arrivals and surprises for fans of deductive-reasoning fictions.

Chinese mystery writer Cai Jun recently released his new book Shengsihe (The River of Life and Death), which was seen as a Chinese social sect, a style of mystery that focuses on social background, searching for social causes of criminal behaviors.

Also in this month, the long awaited Simplified Chinese version of Keigo Higashino's The Wings of the Kirin is published. Promoted as the best piece of Keigo's detective Kyouichirou Kaga series, 9 million copies have been sold in Japan so far.

Almost at the same time, the Soji Shimada prize for deductive-reasoning novels, which was founded in Taiwan and awards the best Asian work in the genre every year, has announced its nominations.

For the first time, Chinese mainland writer Lei Jun's Jianguide Aiqing (Damned Love) has made to the top three.

Puzzle pieces

Book critic Zhu Tong told the Global Times that deductive-reasoning fiction is a broad concept in Japan, and is more than the "detective or mystery" novels that many readers are familiar with.

Although the genre bares similarities to mystery, it sometimes includes elements from science fiction or fantasy and puzzle solving in daily lives. It is a result of the fully developed genre and the marketing requirements in Japan.

Zhu explained that for example, if in a story there is a person who holds an umbrella in heavy rain but does not use it or if someone gives red flowers at a funeral when everyone else sends white flowers, the work would still be classified in the genre as long as it logically solved the puzzle even if no one is subsequently murdered.

For Zhu, such smaller puzzles make the genre lighter and more elegant than the traditional crime-centered detective fictions.

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