The Ronin's Mistress: A Novel of Feudal Japan (Sano Ichiro Novels) - Tapa dura

"Masterful." --"Publishers Weekly" (starred review) on "The Cloud Pavilion""An exercise in pure entertainment." --"The Washington Post "on" The Fire Kimono""[Rowland's] Japan is a mix of Kabuki theater-like stylized formality, palace intrigue, and physical action that would do a martial arts movie proud." --"The New Orleans Times-Picayune" on "The Snow Empress""Sano may carry a sword and wear a kimono, but you'll immediately recognize him as an ancestor of Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade." "--The Denver Post"

Japan, 1703. On a snowy night, 47 warriors murder the man at the centre of the scandal that turned them from samurai into masterless ronin two years before. Clearly this was an act of revenge - but why did they wait so long? And is there any reason they should not immediately be ordered to commit ritual suicide? Sano Ichiro, demoted from Chamberlain to his old post as Most Honourable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People, has mere days to solve the greatest mystery of samurai legend - while his own fortunes hang in the balance.