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.
Kanae Minato, Mahokaru Numata and Yukiko Mari are regarded as representatives of the genre in Japan.
[6][7] 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.