I. J. Parker

As always, this book was "comfort food" for me... I've followed Akitada for so long, and Parker's writing is so fluid... The mood in this volume is a little subdued and dark. In many ways Akitada's life has taken something of a down-turn as far as household happiness goes, and he's beginning to feel his age a little more than before. The basic story involves the mysterious death of a prisoner in jail. The victim's wife, a former prostitute is a suspect, but things don't add up. Meanwhile, show more the case from which the title comes concerns a member of the powerful Fujiwara family who is ill from spirit possession and Akitada is requested to look into the matter. Along the way, he is viciously attacked, and being injured adds to the general unhappiness. I'm really hoping this is an anxious little interlude before an upturn in his fortunes and happiness in the next volume! There are some bright spots, and a new unexpected friendship.

Bonus Track: How to read an Akitada story. When evening comes, retire to a quiet room filled with books and the faint smell of incense. Whisky in a glass and embers in the fireplace are both optional. Turn the ambient lights down low. Put on a quiet recording of shakuhachi music at low volume and set it for infinite repeat in case you get lost. Begin reading and imbibe deeply. show less

This was another solid addition to the Akitada corpus, and as usual with this series, I sat gobbling it like addictive candy...

In this one, he goes to visit his sister Yoshiko up north with a small retinue. Readers of previous volumes will know she's the one who "married down" for love and moved to the country. Bandits are becoming a plague in the area. A local farmer is killed and his daughter has gone missing. (Everyone thinks they know what must have happened to her, and we can easily show more guess, too.) Monks at a local Buddhist temple associated with dragons are quite unfriendly to visitors, which is strange and suspicious. A couple of murders follow in the area. Akitada pursues the cases with the local law enforcers, even though he doesn't have any local authority himself. There are a number of colorful characters involved along the way, and some dangerous situations for Akitada and his retainers.

You'll have to read this yourself to learn the significance of the book's title. :-) And, I hold out hope that one squeeful event in the closing pages will pan out favorably in the next volume.

This takes place in 1034CE, and there is a brief afterword that frames the story in historical context.

This is an indie publication, and the author has been doing it for quite a while now she knows the ropes. As always, Parker's writing is consistently smooth and clear, the formatting is simple and fine. (Aspiring genre novelists, take note: this is how it's done, both in form and content. LOL) The editing is good, and the book contains only a few microscopic typos, mostly involving punctuation. show less

Yes, I totally enjoyed this new Akitada mystery and gobbled it up in 3 days. There's a lot of "human condition" expressed in this one, through various characters. I especially enjoyed the interesting new marital development in Akitada's life. Briefly: he's called to Nara for an investigation of a missing nun, formerly an imperial consort. Expecting it to be a quick and easy case, he takes his new wife along for sight-seeing in the former capital. Then, two nuns are murdered, and it's not show more clear if the incidents are related. This one has a smaller cast of regulars than some of the books, and aside from Sadako, only the retainer Tora is deeply involved. show less

While this book may be number five in the series, it falls after Black Arrow and before the Hell Screen in chronological order. I think the writing is probably some of the best so far. Sugawara goes undercover in this story to get to the truth in the murder of a princely exile on the island of Sadoshima. The author does a good job of writing a story that stands on its own, but if you have read the earlier books (chronologically) you will have a more in depth understanding of the main show more character.

One of the things I like about Parker's writing is that the story of medieval Japan comes to life without the author beating the reader over the head with "look at all I know about this period of history" details. I am looking forward to the next installment of Sugawara Akitada and his trusty sidekick Taro. (I hate to say it, but sometimes I think of the Lone Ranger and Tonto riding in over the hills to save the day for truth, justice and the Confucian way). show less