Souji Shimada

After spending years as a dump truck driver free writer and musician he made his debut as a mystery writer in 1981 when The Tokyo Zodiac Murders remained as a finalist in the Edogawa Rampo Award. His most wellknown works include the Detective Mitarai Series and the Detective Yoshiki Series. His works often involve themes such as the death penalty Nihonjinron his theory on the Japanese people and Japanese and international culture. He is a strong supporter of amateur Honkaku i.e. authentic orthodox mystery writers. Following the trend of Social School of crime fiction led by Seicho Matsumoto he was the pioneer of ShinHonkaku New Orthodox logic mystery genre. He bred authors such as Yukito Ayatsuji Rintaro Norizuki and Shogo Utano and he led the mystery boom from the late 1980s to present day. As the father of ShinHonkaku Shimada is sometimes referred to as The Godfather of ShinHonkaku or God of Mystery. Source: Wikipedia