| Search | About | Preferences | Interact | Help | |
| 150 million books. 1 search engine. | ||
Laura Joh Rowland
new books, used books, rare books by Laura Joh Rowland
› Find all books by 'Laura Joh Rowland' and compare prices› Find signed collectible books by 'Laura Joh Rowland'
The Assassin's Touchby Laura Joh RowlandISBN 0312992092 (0-312-99209-2)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Assassin's Touch'More editions of The Assassin's Touch:
The Assassin's Touch : A Thrillerby Laura Joh RowlandISBN 0312319002 (0-312-31900-2)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Assassin's Touch : A Thriller'More editions of The Assassin's Touch : A Thriller:
Black Lotusby Laura Joh RowlandISBN 0312979584 (0-312-97958-4)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Black Lotus'Book summary:Samurai detective Sano Ichiro, the hero of Laura Joh Rowland's beautifully written mysteries set in Shogun-era Japan, (The Samurai's Wife, The Concubine's Tattoo), investigates an arson murder at the Black Lotus temple, in which the only witness--a young girl who swears she doesn't remember what happened--is also the only suspect. But Sano's wife, Reiko, believes that Haru is innocent and that the real culprits are hiding behind the barred gates of the temple, home to a mysterious sect that is rumored to be responsible for a number of criminal acts. Under pressure to solve the crime, Sano agrees to let Reiko help, but when she takes matters into her own hands, it puts his career in jeopardy and nearly destroys their marriage. Who is the mysterious Abbess of the Black Lotus, and what is the sect's real goal? Is Haru the innocent youngster Reiko believes her to be, or does the evidence Sano uncovers reveal her deceitful nature and complicity in the murders of a child, a young woman, and a high-ranking police commander? As usual, Rowland turns in a brilliant re-creation of a time and place unfamiliar to most readers: the imperial court of 17th-century Japan, whose intrigues and excesses provide a fascinating backdrop for the most charming husband and wife detective team since Nick and Nora Charles. If you haven't discovered Rowland yet, Black Lotus is your opportunity; this is a series with real staying power. --Jane Adams [via]
-
Bundoriby Laura Joh RowlandISBN 0061011975 (0-06-101197-5)
Softcover, Harpercollins
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Bundori'Book summary:It is early spring, 1679, and the feudal Japanese capital, Edo, is beginning to blossom. But along its peaceful, misty streets evil lurks. With one stroke, the favored vassal of the ruling family is decapitated, his head taken for a bundori -- a war trophy.
[via]
Sano Ichiro, the shogun's Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People, is called to find the culprit. In a city where danger and deceit lie just below the lush surface, Sano must rely on his mind, his instincts, and his noble training in Bushido -- the Way of the Warrior -- to solve this case that could bring him glory...or everlasting shame. Set against a backdrop of sumptuous castles, tawdry pleasure districts, and serene temples, and filled with unforgettable, rich characters, Bundori is breathtaking entertainment.More editions of Bundori:
-
The Concubine's Tattooby Laura Joh RowlandISBN 0312969228 (0-312-96922-8)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Concubine's Tattoo'Book summary:PB Fiction [via]
More editions of The Concubine's Tattoo:
-
The Dragon King's Palaceby Laura Joh RowlandISBN 0312990030 (0-312-99003-0)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Dragon King's Palace'Book summary:On a whim of the shoguns mother, a procession has left the sweltering heat of Edo, bound for the cooler climate of Mount Fuji. Among her traveling companions are Reiko, the beautiful wife of Sano Ichir_, the shoguns Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People; Reikos friend Midori, nine months pregnant; and Lady Yanagisawa, the deranged wife of the shoguns powerful second-in-command. None of them look forward to the trip. But their troubles have only begun when their procession is stopped suddenly on a deserted road. The entire retinue is viciously slaughtered and the four women are bound and taken away, imprisoned by a mysterious kidnapper.[via]
Sano now finds himself faced with the most important case of his career. The shogun demands quick action, and under the threat of death, Sano is forced to work with his bitter enemies---Chamberlain Yanagisawa and Police Commissioner Hoshina.
The women are in imminent danger, and the delivery of a ransom note only complicates matters---forcing both Sano and Reiko to take desperate measures. Once again, Laura Joh Rowlands dazzling combination of history and storytelling draws us into a sumptuous and treacherous world. 
The Perfumed Sleeveby Laura Joh RowlandISBN 0312992084 (0-312-99208-4)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Perfumed Sleeve'-
The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteriaby Laura Joh RowlandISBN 0312983786 (0-312-98378-6)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria'Book summary:Samurai sleuth Sano Ichiro has a very personal motive in determining who killed the shogun's heir apparent with a hairpin: he's trying to save himself from being executed for the crime.
The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria introduces readers into Yoshiwara, the well-ordered but cruel pleasure quarter of 17th-century Edo (Tokyo), where the corpse of Lord Mitsuyoshi is found sprawled on a bed. The woman with whom he'd spent his final hours, a top-ranking courtesan known as Lady Wisteria, has disappeared, along with her private journal, which might supply clues to her complicity in this slaying. In the absence of both, and with the capricious old shogun ordering that Mitsuyoshi's family not be quizzed about his death, Sano is left to look for assassins among the courtesan's attendants and prominent clients. Meanwhile, Sano's enemies vie for credit in solving the murder (even if they must pin it on Sano), a woman's headless body is found wearing Wisteria's kimono, and Sano's amateur investigator wife, Reiko, threatens to discover the link between her samurai and the enigmatic prostitute.
Laura Joh Rowland cooks up wonderfully knotty plots. Yet it's her renderings of Sano's world--with its Machiavellian politics, exotic fashions, and hierarchical communities--that make her series particularly interesting. Although this seventh installment lacks the cinematic violence of its immediate predecessor, Black Lotus, it still makes you glad to be observing shogunate Japan from afar. --J. Kingston Pierce [via]
More editions of The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria:
Red Chrysanthemumby Laura Joh RowlandISBN 0312948379 (0-312-94837-9)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Red Chrysanthemum'Book summary:[via]July 1698. Sano Ichiro, the samurai detective who has risen to become the shogun's second-in-command, is investigating rumors of a plot to overthrow the ruling regime. When the investigation brings Sano's deputy Hirata to Lord Mori's estate, he is shocked to find Lord Mori murdered and grotesquely mutilated in his own bed, and Sano's pregnant wife, Reiko, lying beside him. The only solid clue is a chrysanthemum soaked in blood.
Reiko's account of her actions is anything but solid. She insists that she went undercover to Lord Mori's estate in order to investigate claims that he molested and murdered young boys. But when Sano inspects the crime scene, he finds no trace of what Reiko described. And every other witness tells a different story: Lady Mori alleges that Reiko was Lord Mori's scorned mistress and murdered him for revenge. And Lord Mori himself, speaking through a medium, claims his murder was part of Sano's plot to overthrow the shogun!
Unless Sano can prove his wife's unlikely claims, both he and Reiko--and their unborn child--face execution for treason. Sano fights desperately to save his family and his honor, as Laura Joh Rowland draws on the tradition of the classic film Rashomon to bring us a masterful tale of intrigue and treachery.-
The Samurai's Wifeby Laura Joh RowlandISBN 0312974485 (0-312-97448-5)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Samurai's Wife'Book summary:Sano Ichiro, the Shogun's Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People, is back in action in Laura Joh Rowland's latest, The Samurai's Wife. After a heated dispute with his colleague and archrival, Honorable Chamberlain Yanigasawa, Sano finds himself in Miyako, Japan's imperial capital, investigating the mysterious death of Minister Konoe Bokuden. Apparently a victim of murder by kiai, a martial arts technique in which a burst of pure mental energy is concentrated in the voice of the killer, Konoe had been plotting an overthrow of samurai rule. Sano must determine whether his death is a personal or political matter, all the while tiptoeing around the delicate sensibilities and violent tempers of the Emperor and his Imperial Court. His roster of suspects ranges from the Emperor himself to Kozeri, Konoe's former wife, a Buddhist nun whose habit barely conceals a powerful and disturbing sensuality.
Rowland has obviously done her homework; her zest for historical detail complements, rather than overwhelms, the story, giving the reader a glimpse into the ceremoniality of 17th-century imperial Japanese culture: "In the southern sector of the imperial enclosure stood the Purple Dragon Hall.... The austere half-timbered building faced a courtyard bounded with covered corridors supported by vermilion posts. The ground was covered with white sand to reflect the light of the sun and moon onto the hall. A cherry tree and a citrus tree flanked the entrance, representing the guardian archers and horsemen of ancient tradition. Leading up to the door, eighteen steps, framed by red balustrades, symbolized the number of noble ranks in the court hierarchy. Sano and Hoshina slowly approached the bottom of the steps, where a line of courtiers waited."
Unfortunately, Rowland seems sometimes to sacrifice accuracy for the sake of action, creating a bond between Sano and his spirited wife Reiko so modern that one feels that even the most liberated Genroku woman would have been far more circumscribed by ritual and expectations. On the level of plot, rather than philosophy or politics, Sano's deductions have less to do with dogged investigation than with divine inspiration.
Laura Joh Rowland's previous Sano mysteries include The Concubine's Tattoo and The Way of the Traitor. Mystery fans intrigued by the notion of a Japanese mise en scène may be interested in Dale Furutani's Death at the Crossroads and Jade Palace Vendetta, also set in 17th-century Japan. --Kelly Flynn [via]
-
Shinjuby Laura Joh RowlandISBN 0061009504 (0-06-100950-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Shinju'Book summary:When beautiful, wealthy Yukiko and low-born artist Noriyoshi are found drowned together in a shinju, or ritual double suicide, everyone believes the culprit was forbidden love. Everyone but newly appointed yoriki Sano Ichiro.
Despite the official verdict and warnings from his superiors, the shogun's Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People suspects the deaths weren't just a tragedy -- they were murder. Risking his family's good name and his own life, Sano will search for a killer across every level of society -- determined to find answers to a mystery no one wants solved. No one but Sano...
As subtle and beautiful as the culture it evokes, Shinju vividly re-creates a world of ornate tearooms and guady pleasure-palaces, cloistered mountaintop convents and dealthy prisons.
Part love story, part myster, Shinju is a tour that will dazzle and entertain all who enter its world. [via]
The Snow Empressby Laura Joh RowlandISBN 0312945353 (0-312-94535-3)
Softcover, Minotaur Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Snow Empress'-
The Way of the Traitorby Laura Joh RowlandISBN 0061010901 (0-06-101090-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Way of the Traitor'Book summary:Samurai Sano Ichiro, our guide through the intricacies of life and death in 17th-century Japan in Laura Joh Rowland's evocative and accessible mysteries (Bundori and Shinju are available in paperback) is called the Shogun's Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People. All of these skills--plus a strong sense of survival--are needed in this story about what happens when Dutch traders arrive in Nagasaki in 1690. The foreigners are isolated in a small section of the city, and most ordinary citizens are forbidden to make contact with them--on penalty of beheading. But when the Dutch trade director is found murdered, Sano risks his neck to find the killer and satisfy his curiosity about the world outside his rigorously regimented homeland. [via]
More editions of The Way of the Traitor:
![[powered by Muze Inc.]](http://i.bookfinder.com/images/site/muze/powered_by_muze.gif){kind=small}