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Matsuyama Kaze is a "ronin," a Japanese knight-errant. Kaze must travel across Japan until he fulfills a promise made to his dying Lord & Lady to find their nine-year-old daughter. As this masterless samurai searches the countryside, he is caught up in a series of mysteries that test his strength & skills as well as his Confucian training. Kaze stumbles upon a corpse shot with an arrow at the crossroads leading to a small town. He becomes embroiled with an unlikely & untrustworthy cast of show more characters, who are as colorful as they are crafty. Each has secrets to keep & axes to grind & it will take all of Kaze's subtlety, stealth & Samurai skills to unravel the mystery & unmask the killer. Richly atmospheric, filled with historically accurate detail & evokes the world of long-ago Japan & the often-lonely life of an honor-bound warrior show lessTags
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Member Reviews
First book in the Samurai series.
The writing is very good, and the main character, Kaze, is done well, There is a good bit about Japan at the time. The information is woven in well, so there is no huge block of data to read.
The story of the series is the search for the 7-9 year old daughter of Kaze's dead master. They were on the losing side in the battle to determine who would be Shogun. They are all dead and Kaze can't join them until he rescues their young daughter, sold off by a vengeful winning lord.
Each book has a story about a mystery that Kaze encounters on his journey around the land looking for the girl. The book mystery is very light and easily solved. The book would be unsatisfying if it weren't for Kaze and the cultural show more and historical info.
This book is about a dead body found at the crossroads of a rural area. It is a group of small hamlets which are all ruled by the same citified, clueless, uninterested Samurai lord. Chaos, disorder and bandits are the result. The headman just picks a peasant to be guilty and plans to execute him. Kaze searches to find the true killer. show less
The writing is very good, and the main character, Kaze, is done well, There is a good bit about Japan at the time. The information is woven in well, so there is no huge block of data to read.
The story of the series is the search for the 7-9 year old daughter of Kaze's dead master. They were on the losing side in the battle to determine who would be Shogun. They are all dead and Kaze can't join them until he rescues their young daughter, sold off by a vengeful winning lord.
Each book has a story about a mystery that Kaze encounters on his journey around the land looking for the girl. The book mystery is very light and easily solved. The book would be unsatisfying if it weren't for Kaze and the cultural show more and historical info.
This book is about a dead body found at the crossroads of a rural area. It is a group of small hamlets which are all ruled by the same citified, clueless, uninterested Samurai lord. Chaos, disorder and bandits are the result. The headman just picks a peasant to be guilty and plans to execute him. Kaze searches to find the true killer. show less
A mystery set in Tokugawa era Japan. Fun with interesting historical details if you like this setting, probably less so if you don't.
One of the best stories ever - a deep soul and great sensitivity, combined with steel blades and ferocious killing. Amazing fun!
It's like Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo or Sanjuro in print.
Trilogy set in 16th century Japan, at the time of the Tokugawa shogun's takeover from the Emperor.
L'histoire du samouraï vagabond (un rônin) dans le Japon du début du XVIIème siècle. Le cadre de l'action est bien décrit d'un point de vue culturel et historique, et l'auteur le rend très accessible, parsemant le récit de quelques mots et expressions en japonais qui lui donnent une couleur locale. L'histoire est plaisante mais l'intrigue est un peu trop légère pour rendre le récit vraiment intéressant. Donc, un livre dépaysant et intéressant mais qui manque de profondeur.
Dec 13, 2011French
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8+ Works 489 Members
Author and businessman Dale Furutani was born in Hawaii on December 1, 1946. He earned a creative writing degree from California State University, and an M.B.A. from UCLA. As a businessman, Furutani worked in the automotive industry, was president of a software company, and founded a consulting company. As a novelist, Furutani won the Macavity and show more Anthony Awards for his first work, Death in Little Tokyo. After being named the first Asian American to win a major mystery award, Furutani went on to write his second novel, The Toyotomi Blades. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Death at the Crossroads
- Original title
- Death at the Crossroads
- Original publication date
- 1998-07-01
- People/Characters
- Kaze Matsuyama
- Important places
- Japan
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 122
- Popularity
- 266,352
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (3.82)
- Languages
- 6 — Bulgarian, Czech, English, French, Italian, Romanian
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 1
