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Japan, March 1700. Near a Shinto shrine in the hills, a windstorm knocks down a tree to uncover a human skeleton, long buried and forgotten. Meanwhile, in the nearby city of Edo, troops ambush and attack Lady Reiko, the wife of Sano Ichiro, the samurai detective who has risen to power and influence in the shoguns court. The troops who attacked Reiko appear to belong to Sanos fiercest enemy, Lord Matsudaira, who denies all responsibility. But if the rivals are not to blame for each others misfortune, who is?
Just as Sanos strife with Matsudaira begins to escalate to the brink of war, the shogun orders Sano to investigate the origins of the mysterious skeleton, buried with swords that identify it as belonging to the shoguns cousin, who disappeared forty years earlier on the night that a cursed kimono touched off a fire that nearly destroyed the city.
Suddenly, Sano and Reiko are forced to confront dangerous, long-buried secrets that expose Sanos own mother as the possible culprit. The shogun gives Sano and Reiko just three days to clear her name—or risk losing not only their position at court but their families lives.
Review:
"Set in 1700, Rowland's outstanding 13th Sano Ichiro mystery (after 2007's The Snow Empress) finds Sano, whom the shogun raised to the rank of chamberlain several books back, waging a fierce struggle with his chief rival, Lord Matsudaira. The stakes are raised at the outset when Matsudaira's forces almost succeed in killing Sano's wife and occasional sleuthing partner, Reiko. The chamberlain soon suspects that someone else may have been behind the attack, but soon he faces a more daunting task — proving his mother innocent of the murder of one of the shogun's cousins, who vanished during the great fire that destroyed much of Edo and whose skeletal remains were just uncovered by chance. Sano must now question everything he thought he knew about his mother, with his own family facing execution should she be found guilty. Rowland has given her hero his greatest challenge yet in this suspenseful look at feudal Japan." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
Laura Joh Rowland's "The Fire Kimono" is an exercise in pure entertainment. It's not deep or profound, but it takes us to an exotic time and place and overwhelms us with intrigue, romance, adventure and frequent bloodshed. The time is 1700, and the place is Tokyo, then called Edo. Rowland's hero is Sano Ichiro, samurai, chamberlain to the shogun and — here as in earlier books in the series — part-time... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) detective. In this installment, the 13th, Sano's own mother is accused of murder, and he must prove her innocence or see her executed. Sano and his great rival, Lord Matsudaira, are struggling for influence over the shogun, who is appointed by the emperor and is all-powerful in his domain. This one, it happens, is also old, frail and clueless. He remains unaware of the power struggles swirling around him, perhaps because he's more interested in his male lover, Yoritomo, and in the other male concubines he keeps in his palace. To further complicate matters, Yoritomo's father, who was previously chamberlain to the shogun but was forced into exile by Sano, is hiding nearby and scheming to regain power. All of these antagonists have armies at their disposal, and war or assassination are ever-present threats. Amid all this intrigue, a skeleton is found. It proves to be that of the shogun's cousin, who disappeared 43 years earlier when a great fire engulfed Edo. It then had a population of a million, and perhaps 200,000 died. Markings on the skeleton indicate that the youth was stuck by a sword, and the shogun tells Sano to find the killer. Unfortunately, as Sano interviews people who knew the victim, suspicion falls on his own mother, who at the time of the fire was part of the royal entourage. A series of flashbacks vividly portrays the terrible fire and also reveals the story of the mother as a young woman engaged to one man and in love with another. Sano, although a great warrior, is an honorable man who won't stoop to the dirty tricks employed by his enemies. One of them taunts him by saying, "Your honor has always been your downfall and my blessing." But Sano is pushed to the limit here, because if his mother is found guilty of killing a kinsman of the shogun — treason — that would mean not only her execution but that of Sano, his wife and children, and many of his followers. Rowland pays close attention to Sano's domestic life. His wife, Lady Reiko, is quite a liberated woman for Japan in 1700: "Throughout their marriage she'd constantly ventured beyond the limits of what society deemed acceptable behavior for a wife, a woman." Reiko has been Sano's partner in detecting — they were the Nick and Nora Charles of their day — but she is pained because her young daughter, hurt by Reiko's long absence during a previous adventure, shuns her. Rowland writes gracefully, and much of the pleasure of the book lies in her portrait of a society largely unknown to most of us. Here's her glimpse of an old woman: "They returned carrying Lady Ateki, a minute woman more than eighty years old, her bones as fragile as a bird's under her gray kimono. Her nose was shaped like a beak, her sparse gray hair tied in a feathery knot. When the servants gently settled her on cushions, she resembled a dove on a nest." Here's a long-absent samurai at the dinner table: "The children gazed curiously at his bowl of fish topped with sliced ginseng root to stimulate mental and physical energy, fleece flower to strengthen the blood, and lycii berries to improve eyesight. They were somber in the presence of this strange father who ate weird food, said little, and did puzzling things." At times the story is festive: "Inside the castle, the shogun and his guests feasted at a continuous banquet. Musicians, dancing girls, acrobats, jugglers, and magicians entertained. Theater troupes performed plays. The revelry spilled into the garden, where lanterns hung from the blossoming cherry trees." Dancing girls aside, this remains a violent tale, spiced with executions, sword fights, ritual suicides and decapitations. One scene takes place at one of Edo's two execution grounds. "Four gibbets held the heads of recently executed criminals, impaled on nails and propped up with clay." The hundreds of spectators are astonished when workmen begin digging a hole: "No one had expected to witness the most extreme form of capital punishment — nokogiri-biki, in which the criminal is immobilized in a pit and his head sawn off while he is alive." Rowland, who is the granddaughter of Korean and Chinese immigrants, does a good job of capturing the beauty and barbarism of Japan at a certain moment in its history. It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. Reviewed by Patrick Anderson, whose e-mail address is mondaythrillers(at symbol)aol.com., Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
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Synopsis:
Japan, March 1700. Troops ambush and attack Lady Reiko, the wife of Sano Ichiro, the samurai detective who has risen to power and influence. The troops who have attacked Reiko appear to belong to Sano's enemy, Lord Matsudaira, who denies all responsibility. But if the rivals are not to blame, who is?
Synopsis:
Japan, March 1700. The strife between Sano Ichiro, the samurai detective who has risen to power in the shogun's court, and his enemies has escalated to the brink of war.
When a long-buried skeleton with mysterious links to the shogun suddenly comes to light, Sano and his wife, Reiko, who defies social conventions by joining in his investigations, must confront dangerous secrets. What was Sano's own mother doing on the night when a burning kimono ignited a blaze that nearly destroyed the city? The shogun gives Sano and Reiko just three days to find out--or risk losing not only their position at court but their families' lives.
Laura Joh Rowland, the granddaughter of Chinese and Korean immigrants, was educated at the University of Michigan and now lives in New Orleans with her husband. The Fire Kimono is the thirteenth novel in her acclaimed series of thrillers featuring Sano Ichiro. Visit her on the Web at www.laurajohrowland.com.
ddg8959, December 22, 2008 (view all comments by ddg8959)
Have read all of the books and fine them intertaining. The story line continues from book to book and bits of histotical information thrown in to keep your mind guessing. I would like to see the story line move back to more investagation of crimes. Sano is the CSI of that time, that moves to a defferent beat.
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Product details
304 pages
St. Martin's Minotaur -
English9780312379483
Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"Set in 1700, Rowland's outstanding 13th Sano Ichiro mystery (after 2007's The Snow Empress) finds Sano, whom the shogun raised to the rank of chamberlain several books back, waging a fierce struggle with his chief rival, Lord Matsudaira. The stakes are raised at the outset when Matsudaira's forces almost succeed in killing Sano's wife and occasional sleuthing partner, Reiko. The chamberlain soon suspects that someone else may have been behind the attack, but soon he faces a more daunting task — proving his mother innocent of the murder of one of the shogun's cousins, who vanished during the great fire that destroyed much of Edo and whose skeletal remains were just uncovered by chance. Sano must now question everything he thought he knew about his mother, with his own family facing execution should she be found guilty. Rowland has given her hero his greatest challenge yet in this suspenseful look at feudal Japan." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
Japan, March 1700. Troops ambush and attack Lady Reiko, the wife of Sano Ichiro, the samurai detective who has risen to power and influence. The troops who have attacked Reiko appear to belong to Sano's enemy, Lord Matsudaira, who denies all responsibility. But if the rivals are not to blame, who is?
"Synopsis"
by Netread,
Japan, March 1700. The strife between Sano Ichiro, the samurai detective who has risen to power in the shogun's court, and his enemies has escalated to the brink of war.
When a long-buried skeleton with mysterious links to the shogun suddenly comes to light, Sano and his wife, Reiko, who defies social conventions by joining in his investigations, must confront dangerous secrets. What was Sano's own mother doing on the night when a burning kimono ignited a blaze that nearly destroyed the city? The shogun gives Sano and Reiko just three days to find out--or risk losing not only their position at court but their families' lives.
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