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In the carefully ordered world of seventeenth-century Japan, the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter is a place where men of all classes can drink, revel, and enjoy the favors of beautiful courtesans. But on a cold winter's dawn, Sano Ichiro - the shogun's Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People - must visit Yoshiwara on a most unpleasant mission.Within a house of assignation reserved for the wealthiest, most prominent men, a terrible murder has occurred. In a room that reeks of liquor and sex, the shogun's cousin and heir, Lord Mitsuyoshi, lies dead, a flowered hairpin embedded in his eye, in the bed of the famous courtesan, Lady Wisteria.The shogun demands quick justice, but Sano's path is blocked by many obstacles, including the disappearance of Wisteria and her pillow book, a diary that may contain clues. The politics of court life, the whims of the shogun, and interference by his long time rival, Edo's Chief Police Commissioner Hoshina, also hinder Sano in his search for the killer. Sano's wife, Lady Reiko, is eager to help him, but he fears what she may uncover. When suspicion of murder falls upon Sano himself, he must find the real murderer to solve the case and clear his name. Once again, "an exotic setting, seventeenth-century Japan, and a splendid mystery... make for grand entertainment" ( New York Daily News ).… (more)
User reviews
Lots of twists and turns
I want to give it the higher number because it's as well written and tightly plotted as any of the previous books in
The reason I want to give it Three Stars, however, is the fact that the formula is beginning to wear a little thin by the time this book, the seventh in the series, comes to a close. The murder in this book, that of the shogun's heir-apparent just feels rehashed. The story follows the same pattern we've seen before: Sano investigates, finds his path blocked by corruption in the highest echelons of government and his conflicts with others who vie for the Shogun's fickle favor, and struggles with his sense of duty to his lord versus his need to see justice fulfilled. Unsurprisingly, Sano's enemies in the Shogun's court eventually force him into a do-or-die situation, where his very life depends on solving the case. This is the exact same basic plot we've seen in previous books. There's a very powerful foreboding of something serious happening soon in the clashes between Sano and his enemies in the court, as well as the continuation of Yanagisawa's manipulations with the Shogun, but this sense of anticipation does little to carry the novel through the same paths that are now well-trod in Rowland's Feudal Japan. What keeps the formula from growing noticeably stale in previous outings is that each book carries with it a new and fascinating glance at some aspect of Feudal Japanese society or culture, whether it be religious life (as in the previous outing, Black Lotus), the curious insular world that the Emperor lives in (The Samurai's Wife) or the closed world of the Western traders in Japan (Way of the Traitor). This has relatively little of that. It promises to focus exclusively on the Yoshiwara Pleasure Quarter, an enclave where prostitution is legal and women are sold into a life of it, but there is truly little here that hasn't been covered in-depth across the previous six novels.
It was an enjoyable book, as Rowland's Sano Ichiro books genuinely are. Unfortunately, it truly does feel like a "middle book" in the series: old plots are wrapped up and new ones are hinted at, but it doesn't stand as substantial on its own.