Tokyo Mystery Writers

Chapter 90 Number One Fan, Kiyoshi Kasai

Jiang Liu Meili and Mai Shiro Jingjie drove to Kodansha to meet with Noma Genjiro.

Thanks to the guidance of critic Manji Gonda, Kyosuke Maijo's negotiations went very smoothly.

Not only did Noma Genjiro agree that all of Maijo Kyosuke's works would be handled by Uyama Hideomi and Eri Misaki, but he also increased Maijo Kyosuke's publishing royalties by 2%, allowing Maijo Kyosuke to focus on his creative work.

Maijo Kyosuke would never refuse such a benefit. After all, a 2% increase in royalties would not only improve his quality of life, but also ensure that if he came across better manuscripts by renowned authors in the future, he wouldn't be as destitute as he is now...

-

Just as Maishiro Kyosuke, Eri Ryu, and Uyama Hideomi were celebrating the successful contract negotiation, "The Tokyo Zodiac Murder Mystery" had already caused a huge sensation among readers!

Whether it's students on campus, office workers in companies, or housewives sitting outdoors chatting idly.

Regardless of what they had been talking about before.

But today, almost all the topics they were discussing were related to Kyosuke Maijo and his novel, "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders"!

Because Kodansha released 75,000 copies of "The Tokyo Zodiac Murder Mystery" today and announced that another 75,000 copies of the "New Book Release" will be distributed tomorrow, Thursday, readers who want to buy the book can basically get their hands on it.

Most readers who have read "The Astrological Murder Mystery" have given it overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Because the design of the tricks in "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders" is truly unprecedented and unparalleled!

In terms of the level of trickery used alone, it has even surpassed the level of Dickson Carr's masterpiece "The Three Coffins," one of the "Kings of Locked Rooms"!

The "counterfeit coin trick" where five people pieced together six corpses can indeed be called "the devil's whisper"!

However, the most discussed topic is not the plot twists in "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders".

After all, there has long been an unwritten rule in the mystery fiction community: while it's fine to discuss and recommend newly published mystery books, it's absolutely forbidden to leak the ending.

Revealing the core plot of the new book would not only diminish the reading experience for others, but also affect the book's final sales.

So in the end, the discussion turned into a discussion about Maijo Kyosuke, a genius writer of the new generation!

Whenever new mystery writers are discussed, someone will inevitably bring up the older, more established writers to compare them to the newcomers, insisting on determining who is superior in terms of status and ability.

This kind of cross-level comparison is a common old tradition in the mystery writing circle, but most new writers can't compare with the veterans.

However, this time it was Maijo Kyosuke's turn, and the readers unanimously brought up five masters of orthodox mystery fiction: Yokomizo Seishi, Takagi Akimitsu, Namikawa Tetsuya, Tsuchiya Takao, and Awasaka Tsumabuki, who rose to prominence three years ago, to compare with Maijo Kyosuke.

At this time, in the literary world, only these five pure masters of orthodox mystery fiction were left who could overpower Maijo Kyosuke.

Apart from mystery critic Kiyoshi Kasai, who wrote "Goodbye Angel" last year, most of the other writers are writing social realism novels.

Even among writers who adhere to traditional mystery fiction today, almost none have achieved sales exceeding 50,000 copies.

Therefore, there is nothing to compare. In terms of sales, Kyosuke Maijo became the best-selling author of classic mystery novels in the past three years with just one book, "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders"!

In terms of book quality, "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders" is comparable to masterpieces like "Prison Gate Island" and "The Three Coffins"!

In terms of writing style, thought process, and overall approach, Kyosuke Maijo used the technique of repackaging and his excellent writing style to create "A Bellflower," which perfectly surpassed Keikichi Osaka's "Funeral Locomotive" and became a model of putting old wine in new bottles in the history of mystery fiction!

Therefore, under such intense discussion, a group of early admirers of Maijo Kyosuke quickly emerged within the mystery fiction community.

Among these first-generation admirers, the most famous number one admirer is Kiyoshi Kasai, the critic and mystery writer who wrote "Goodbye Angel" last year and won the Kadokawa Novel Prize.

Kiyoshi Kasai described Kyosuke Maijo as a genius capable of reviving the orthodox mystery genre and ensuring its continuation for another hundred years!

For this reason, Kiyoshi Kasai wrote tens of thousands of words of reviews in several newspapers, praising Kyosuke Maijo's "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders" and "A Bellflower" as groundbreaking masterpieces!

Kasai Kiyoshi's excessive flattery made it seem to outsiders that he had received tens of millions of yen from Maijo Kyosuke and was doing this to lavish praise.

Little did people know that Kiyoshi Kasai truly admired Kyosuke Maijo, and he even paid to have many of his articles published in newspapers to secure prominent placement!

Thanks to the enthusiastic praise from critic and mystery writer Kiyoshi Kasai.

Readers are even more curious about what kind of exciting story Maijo Kyosuke will write in the next issue of Top Hat magazine to compete with all the Japanese mystery writers!

-

The Takarajima-sha Building in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo.

The president of Takarajima Publishing, Hosho Shirakawa, wearing black sunglasses, stood in his office, listening to the reports from his subordinates, and slammed his fist on the table, cursing loudly:

"What am I paying you bunch of useless trash to do?"

"A completely unknown new mystery writer, just two weeks ago, actually managed to sell 800,000 copies of that lousy 'Top Hat' magazine?!"

"That's a full 400,000 more copies than our 'Fiction & Mystery' magazine! How is that possible?!"

Daisuke Kamiyama, the editor-in-chief of the magazine department of Takarajima Publishing, turned ashen-faced from being yelled at by Hosho Shirakawa, but dared not utter a single word in rebuttal.

Because the magazine he founded, "Fiction Mystery," had gone from selling 400,000 copies per issue to a struggling magazine that only sold 250,000 copies.

Faced with such huge sales fluctuations, Daisuke Kamiyama didn't dare to even breathe loudly, fearing that President Hosho would push all the blame onto him alone.

Seeing the president's face turn red with anger, Matsushima Shunma, the sales manager of Takarajima Co., Ltd., also felt that he could not sit idly by and wait for his fate.

Given the current situation, the sudden emergence of "Top Hat" magazine has already plunged Takarazuka Publishing into a desperate situation!

Takarajima Publishing Co., Ltd. was able to successfully establish itself among numerous mystery publishers thanks to its short-story mystery magazine, "Fiction Mystery".

If Kodansha's "Top Hat" magazine completely defeats them this time, Takarajimasha will not only face the fate of having its "Fiction Mystery" magazine discontinued, but may also face the terrible situation of being sued by hundreds of GG companies!