Author Anthony Horowitz has become Japan’s most-decorated foreign crime author after winning the Best Mystery of the Decade award by Honkaku Mystery Writers Club, reports The Bookseller. Horowitz was given the award for his novel ‘The Word is Murder’, the first book in the Daniel Hawthorne series. Commenting about winning the Best Mystery of the Decade award, Horowitz said that he felt grateful. ‘During the lockdown, I have been reading many mystery stories. And it seems to me that the novels coming out of Japan lead the world for their originality, their ingenuity and their brilliant solutions… I would like to thank everyone who has supported my work in Japan, especially my publishers, Tokyo Sogensha and my brilliant translator, Ms Ran Yamada,’ the author said, according to The Bookseller All three Horowitz’s books- ‘Magpie Murders’, ‘The Word is Murder’ and ‘The Sentence is Death’- have been published in Japan. His books have won 16 crime-fiction awards in total which makes him the first foreign crime fiction author in the Japanese history to win so many literary awards. Commenting about winning the Best Mystery of the Decade award, Horowitz said that he felt grateful. “During the lockdown, I have been reading many mystery stories. And it seems to me that the novels coming out of Japan lead the world for their originality, their ingenuity and their brilliant solutions… I would like to thank everyone who has supported my work in Japan, especially my publishers, Tokyo Sogensha and my brilliant translator, Ms Ran Yamada,” the author said, according to The Bookseller. Meanwhile, on the work front, Horowitz’s third novel in the Hawthorne series, titled ‘A Line to Kill’, is expected to be released this year. He is also currently writing his third official James Bond novel! The book is currently untitled and it is expected to be published in 2022 by Jonathan Cape. Sharing an update about the new Bond book that he is writing, Horowitz’s tweeted on August 9: