THE SAMURAI'S WIFE

Despite its mighty samurai and web of spies, the military elite in Rowland’s 17th-century Japan does not reign secure (The

Way of the Traitor, 1997, etc.). The Takugawa shogun has even planted a spy in the cloistered Imperial Court, its inhabitants relics of bygone splendor dallying in the ancient bowers of Miyako. But the shogun’s snake isn’t the only one in the emperor’s garden. When the spy more or less melts in its inner sanctum, Sano Ichiro (Most Honorable Investigator) is dispatched to discover the "relic" who can kill by force of will alone. Has the Festival of the Dead summoned an ancient spirit? Have disgruntled aristocrats hatched a more mundane plot against the shogunate to recapture power? (And does the emperor’s strange, protected cousin really have Tourette’s syndrome?) Facing the supernatural and cutting through labyrinthine court intrigue aren’t Sano’s only challenges. Series familiars know his political investigation will be impeded by the personal: by the machinations of his corrupt rival for the shogun’s regard, Chamberlain Yanagisawa, and by his fears for the safety of his new wife, Reiko. Actually, Reiko’s snooping in the women’s quarters snares her husband in Yanagisawa’s dangerous net; yet while the men hobble each other, focused on their enmity, Reiko gets to the heart of the imperial matter. Early on, initiated readers will plod through rote description of societal structure and gender relations in feudal Japan, as newcomers struggle to catch up. Each, though, will soon be whisked through the tale, slowed only occasionally by too-blunt

exposition, a too-contemporary colloquialism, or the evocative charms of an exotic setting. (Author tour)