Reviewed by Alicia Glass
Author: Laura Joh Rowland
Publisher: Amazon
Review Rating: 9.5
Sano Ichiro, likened to a Japanese feudal-era Sam Spade or Alex Cross, investigates mysteries and murders as first a Detective, and then as the Shogun’s Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations and People.
One would think that writing a series of murder mystery novels set in feudal-era Japan circa approximately 1700 featuring a protagonist with such crazed sensibilities as getting help with his investigations from women, would be impossible. Yet Rowland brings across Sano Ichiro in a strong and yet curiously humanly vulnerable way. Sano faces all the slings and arrows modern life throws at us: a wife and children, an at-times impossible job with an overbearing boss (one that could order your death at any moment, mind), familial piety, and enthusiastically loyal co-workers, all tossed together in a time when Japan’s Edo had great cultural signifigance. With all that in mind, I invite you to enter the world of Sano Ichiro and his many adventures!
Shinju
Detective Sano’s first big case, the double suicide (Shinju) of wealthy Yukiko and impoverished artist Nuriyoshi. When the official report is released, Sano is convinced there is a murderer involved.
Bundori
Sano Ichiro is hot on the trail of a killer who practices the ancient custom of Bundori, or taking war trophies. This particular murderer, known for taking heads, causes Sano to risk it everything from his career to his life, in order to catch him.
The Way of the Traitor
Nagasaki is a city rife with corruption and suspicion, but also curiosity and strange new wonders. When the body of one of the very few Westerners in Japan, a Dutch trader named Jan Saen, washes up on shore, Sano Ichiro finds himself conducting a very dangerous investigation. For not only is his usual honor at stake, his very life could depend on finding the killer!
The Concubine’s Tattoo
When the Shogun’s favorite concubine Lady Harume is found dead from, of all things, a poisonous lovers’ tattoo, Most Honorable Investigator of People, Situations and Events Sano Ichiro, is brought in to investigate. While navigating the private female world of the palace women and Lady Harume’s private lovers and secrets, Sano finds his mind on other things, having just acquired a new wife, Lady Reiko.
The Samurai’s Wife
Most Honorable Investigator Sano Ichiro and his strong-willed wife Lady Reiko are summoned to the Shogun’s palace to investigate the murder of a high Kyoto official. The manner of death, caused by the ancient legend of kiai or spirit cry, leads Sano and Reiko into political machination plots, illicit lovers and dark secrets hidden in the very palace.
Black Lotus
A fire set on the prestigious Black Lotus Temple that killed three members yielded only one likely culprit, a low orphan girl that everyone but Lady Reiko is ready to condemn guilty. Using her unique vantage point as Sano’s wife to gain privileged information, Lady Reiko discovers dark doings inside the Black Lotus sect, and sets out to convince her stubborn husband before the entire city is set aflame!
The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria
The Shogun’s heir apparent and charming young cousin has been found murdered, stabbed through the eye by a Lady’s long hairpin, in the Yoshiwara or pleasure quarter. The purported murderer, Lady Wisteria, and her pillow book or diary, are nowhere to be found. Matters are considerably complicated when Sano is placed on the job and discovers it’s the same woman he had a brief but thrilling affair with years ago before he was married.
The Dragon King’s Palace
Sano’s wife Lady Reiko, the Shogun’s mother, Reiko’s friend Midori, and the wife of Sano’s strongest rival Lady Yanagisawa, have all been kidnapped by a madman and taken to a ruined palace. In order to save them, Sano has to ally with his enemies Lord Yanagisawa and policeman Hoshina, in a race against time and a madman’s quest for revenge!
The Perfumed Sleeve
The streets of Edo are teeming with violence as Chamberlain Yanagisawa and Lord Matsudiara, cousin to the Shogun, clash head-on for the rulership of all Japan. Senior Elder Makino is found dead in a most peculiar manner and posthumously makes a demand on Sano’s honor to investigate the case, which does indeed turn out to be a murder with a single strange clue left behind: a torn kimono sleeve trailing perfume.
The Assassin’s Touch
Despite his recent promotion to Chamberlain to the Shogun, Sano Ichiro is still in the thick of things. When Ejima Senzaemon falls dead off his horse during a race, Sano determines the cause to actually be dim-mak, the ancient way of killing with a single touch. Sano’s wife Reiko, in the midst of her own investigation into the slaying of her parents and sister supposedly by the lovely and recalcitrant Yugao, realizes her investigation and her husband’s are related somehow. Both Sano and Reiko become embroiled in the plot to stop the slaying of all the Shogun’s top officials.
The Red Chrysanthemum
Lord Mori, next heir to the Shogun’s regime, has been found murdered and mutilated in a most brutal fashion. But for Sano Ichiro, Chamberlain to the Shogun and Second-In-Command, the stakes are much higher than that. Found next to the body of Lord Mori is Sano’s own wife, Lady Reiko, heavily pregnant, naked and covered in blood. The one clue left behind to begin his desperate investigation is a white chrysanthemum, doused in blood.
The Snow Empress
Sano Ichiro’s eight year old son disappears during a moon viewing party, and his wife Lady Reiko insists on going with Sano when he receives a broad hint to go to Ezogashima if he wants his son returned. Upon arrival in Ezogashima, Sano and Reiko are stunned to learn Lord Matsumae is holding the entire city hostage for the confession of the murderer of his beloved Mistress. Sano agrees to find the murderer in exchange for his son’s life, but time and Lord Matsumae’s sanity, is running out.
The Fire Kimono
A storm unearths a skeleton near a Shinto shrine buried with swords indicating that it belongs to the Shogun’s own family, turning out to be yet another of the Shogun’s cousins, one who disappeared almost 40 years ago on a night when a raging fire almost destroyed the whole city. The investigation, rife with tensions as Lady Reiko, Sano’s wife, has several attempts made on her life supposedly by Lord Matsudiara of a rival faction, gets worse when many clues seem to lead right to Sano’s own mother.
