Claws of the Cat by Susan Spann: Shinobi Mystery #1

Claws of the Cat (Shinobi Mystery #1) by author  Susan Spann is being re-released by Seventh Street Books; Reprint edition (April 23, 2019)

Claws of the Cat

My review:

An unlikely pair of collaborators in 16th century Kyoto risk their lives to solve the murder of a samurai who died from claw and stab wounds in a local tea house. The fatal wounds were made by neko-te or "cat's claws," a type of weapon used mostly be female fighters. But did a female murder the samurai?

Father Mateo, a Portuguese Jesuit priest who is protected and sponsored by the shogun, and his official protector, the ninja Hiro, must prove that Mateo's convert to Christianity, the tea house entertainer Sayuri, is innocent of the crime. The son of the dead samurai threatens to kill both Mateo and Sayuri unless another person is found responsible for the murder.

An engrossing mystery in an intriguing historical setting, with likable and well developed main characters, Claws of the Cat is also an entertaining and well researched novel about the samurai, their code of conduct, and their manner of fighting. I recommend the book for those who enjoy a good mystery and are curious about the old samurai culture of Japan.

Blade of the Samurai

The next in the series, Blade of the Samurai,  originally published July 15, 2014, is also in reprint with a new cover by Seventh Street Books.  Here is my review of the first edition.

See my reviews of the other books in the series:
The Ninja's Daughter
Flask of the Drunken Master
Trial on Mount Koya
Betrayal at Iga

There are six novels in the mystery series so far, all being reprinted in paperback by Seventh Street Books, with a seventh book, Ghost of the Bamboo Road to be released November 2019. I have enjoyed all the books, and am looking forward to the seventh book!

Susan Spann is the award-winning author of the Hiro Hattori mystery novels, featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo. She has a degree in Asian Studies, as well as a lifelong love of Japanese history, food and culture. She currently lives in Tokyo, where she is working on an upcoming nonfiction book about mountain climbing in Japan as well as the next installment in the Hiro Hattori mystery series.Visit her 

website

Book Review: Claws of the Cat by Susan Spann

Claws of the Cat

An unlikely pair of collaborators in 16th century Kyoto risk their lives to solve the murder of a samurai who died from claw and stab wounds in a local tea house. The fatal wounds were made by neko-te or "cat's claws," a type of weapon used mostly be female fighters. But did a female murder the samurai?

Father Mateo, a Portuguese Jesuit priest who is protected and sponsored by the shogun, and his official protector, the ninja Hiro, must prove that Mateo's convert to Christianity, the tea house entertainer Sayuri, is innocent of the crime. The son of the dead samurai threatens to kill both Mateo and Sayuri unless another person is found responsible for the murder.

An engrossing mystery in an intriguing historical setting, with likable and well developed main characters, Claws of the Cat is also an entertaining and well researched novel about the samurai, their code of conduct, and their manner of fighting. I recommend the book for those who enjoy a good mystery and are curious about the old samurai culture of Japan.

Thanks to the author for a complimentary review copy of this book. The next in the series, Blade of the Samurai, was published July 15, 2014. Here is my review.

Book Review: The Shogun's Daughter by Laura Joh Rowland

Title: The Shogun's Daughter: A Novel of Feudal Japan
Publication: September 17, 2013; Minotaur Books Hardcover
Genre: historical fiction
Objective rating: 5/5

Comments: Even though this novel and this series of detective novels is set in 18th century Japan, the dialogue is fairly modern and the characters are so well drawn that we can easily relate to them. The plot is complex and though this story is fictional, the historical background and the detailed description of setting gives us a strong sense of the time and place, the atmosphere and political culture.

The plot: Sano Ichiro the Chamberlain and his wife Reiko are forced to save their own lives by finding the real murderer of the Shogun's daughter and the subsequent murderer of the appointed heir. Because suspicion falls on Sano, he and his family are doomed if they cannot discover and reveal the plots and treachery surrounding the Shogun and his daughter. Joining in their sleuthing is Sano's 12-year-old son Masahiro, and also young Taeko, the daughter of Sano's chief retainer Hirata. Hirata battles his own ghosts and is unable to help Sano and his family as he has in previous times.

Recommendation: I have read several of the books in the series and enjoyed being transported to feudal Japan, by story and by the descriptions. The author conveys these admirably well. The books do not have to be read in order, but they do follow the story of Sano and Reiko through perilous times in the reign of the Shogun.

Publisher description: Japan, 1704. In an elegant mansion a young woman named Tsuruhime lies on her deathbed, attended by her nurse. Smallpox pustules cover her face. Incense burns, to banish the evil spirits of disease. After Tsuruhime takes her last breath, the old woman watching from the doorway says, “Who’s going to tell the Shogun his daughter is dead?”

The death of the Shogun’s daughter has immediate consequences on his regime. There will be no grandchild to leave the kingdom. Faced with his own mortality and beset by troubles caused by the recent earthquake, he names as his heir Yoshisato, the seventeen-year-old son he only recently discovered was his. Until five months ago, Yoshisato was raised as the illegitimate son of Yanagisawa, the shogun’s favorite advisor. Yanagisawa is also the longtime enemy of Sano Ichiro.

Sano doubts that Yoshisato is really the Shogun’s son, believing it’s more likely a power-play by Yanagisawa. When Sano learns that Tsuruhime’s death may have been a murder, he sets off on a dangerous investigation that leads to more death and destruction as he struggles to keep his pregnant wife, Reiko, and his son safe. Instead, he and his family become the accused. And this time, they may not survive the day.

For other reviews, visit the tour schedule hosted by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.

Laura Joh Rowland is the author of a mystery series set in medieval Japan, featuring samurai detective Sano Ichiro. The Shogun’s Daughter is the seventeenth book in the series. Her work has been nominated for the Anthony Award and the Hammett Prize, and won the RT Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Historical Mystery. Laura lives in New York City. Visit Laura’s website or Facebook.

For this review, I received an ARC of the book through the tour group and the publisher. 

The Incense Game by Laura Joh Rowland

"The incense game begins," Usugumo said. The sisters sat up straighter, like warriors preparing for battle. "Listen to the incense. Let its voice tell you who it is."  

She set the celadon bowl on the floor between her and the elder sister and bowed.

Title: The Incense Game: A Novel of Feudal Japan
Author: Laura Joh Rowland
Published September 18, 2012; Minotaur Books hardcover
Genre: historical mystery

Book description: "In the wake of a terrifying earthquake, Sano Ichiro races to solve a crime that could bring down the shogun's regime.

When a massive earthquake devastates Japan in 1703, even the shogun's carefully regulated court is left teetering on the brink of chaos. This is no time for a murder investigation—except when a nobleman's daughters are found dead from incense poisoning and their father threatens to topple the regime unless Sano Ichiro tracks down the killer.

With the help of his wife, Reiko, and his chief retainer, Hirata, Sano begins a secret investigation that jeopardizes his whole family."

I enjoyed this historical mystery set in 18th century Japan and rated 4 stars!

Book Review: The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

Title: The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura, translated from the Japanese by Satoko Izumo and Stephen Coates
Published March 20, 2012; Soho Crime
Source: library

I was pleasantly surprised by this award winning novel by the young Japanese writer Fuminori Nakamura. He won Japan's largest prize, the 2009 Oe Prize, for this book and I can see why.

Not nearly as noir as I was expecting, the book shows the flaws and the humanity of this young man, a Tokyo pickpocket so skilled that he can unbutton a man's coat, take a wallet from the inside pocket, and rebutton the coat without being noticed or caught. Working in tandem with two others, he can even remove the cash and return the wallet to the unsuspecting victim's pocket in the flash of an eye.

The Thief targets only wealthy, well dressed Tokyo businessmen, as they walk along the street or ride on the subway. This is until he gets involved in more serious pickpocketing for gang members who have a political agenda. The noir ending I was expecting didn't happen, and there is hope for the Thief who risks his life to protect a young boy, a budding pickpocket, and put him on a path different from his own.

This was an easy read, only 211 pages. The dialogue and plot lines are both excellent.

Nakamura's first book, The Gun, has also won an award.

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The Ronin's Mistress, a Novel by Laura Joh Rowland

Title: The Ronin's Mistress: A Novel (Sano Ichiro Novels)
Hardcover: 336 pages, Minotaur Books; September 13, 2011
Genre: historical mystery

A servant knelt at the threshold of the bedchamber. "There's a message from the sosakan-sama. He wants your help with a new case." Hirata was intrigued and excited. He said to Midori, "Maybe this is what we've been waiting for." (ch. 2)

Book description: The Ronin's Mistress is set in 18th century Japan and draws on the story of the fabled 47 Ronin. Japan, 1703. On a snowy night, 47 warriors murder the man at the center 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 Honorable 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. (amazon)

About the author: Laura Joh Rowland lives in New York. This is the 15th novel in the award-winning series set in feudal Japan. Her website is at Laura Joh Rowland.

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

Book Review: Japan Took the J.A.P. Out of Me by Lisa Fineberg Cook

I laughed out loud several times while reading this memoir, in the funny parts
 at the beginning, when Lisa finds herself puzzled and unable to understand
the language and her surroundings in her temporary new home, Japan.

A newly married and relatively spoilt 30 year old woman, a J.A.P. (Jewish-American Princess), the author negotiates her way around her
 temporary home in Nagoya, Japan, finding out she has to do housework
 she had never had to do back in L.A. - laundry with a vengeful,
outmoded washing machine, cooking at home, taking public transportation,
 going shopping without knowing the language, and finding friends
among adults and even among schoolgirls who scream with excitement every time they see her - the Meg Ryan look-alike and possible celebrity.

Lisa makes it amusing, and later finds that adjusting to living in a foreign country changes her a bit and even strengthens her relationship with her husband Peter. Her advice to anyone who has a chance to live abroad for a while - do it!

A fun read. I finished in two sittings :  Japan Took the J.A.P. Out of Me by Lisa Fineberg Cook

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for a review copy of this book.

Book Review: The Fire Kimono by Laura Joh Rowland

The Fire Kimono

Well, I finally finished The Fire Kimono, not because it was dull or boring, quite the contrary, but because my cabin fever had me out and about. I finally had to head to the bookstore to sit in a corner and finish it in installments, all 207 pages.

Laura Joh Rowland does another excellent job in having her early 18th century protagonist, Chamberlain Sano Ichiro, solve crimes while avoiding family disasters as well as execution by an ineffective and vascillating shogun.

The discovery of a 40 year old skeleton buried under a tree brings to light old family secrets involving the shogun's family as well as Chamberlain Sano's mother. Trying to protect her as well as discover the truth about her past puts Sano and his immediate family in grave danger.

I loved the unfolding of the plot and how relationships are developed and tested during the novel: mother/son, husband/wife, daughter-in-law/mother-in-law, shogun/vassal, and the samurai/bushido code of conduct. Rowland has excelled in one of the best in this mystery series.

Book Review: Girl in a Box by Sujata Massey

Another side of Tokyo?

Try reading Sujata Massey, whose mystery series is set in modern Japan.

Her most recent book, Girl in a Box, reveals the shopping culture and shopping habits of Japanese and expatriates alike, and the sales organization of ritzy Tokyo department stores. Of course, because this is a mystery novel about big business, the yakuza (gangsters) are involved in the plot, as are a shady American or two.

The sales culture, the relationship between managers and staff, and staff and customers, all point to the enormous efforts made to please clients.

On another note, there is a visit to a hot springs resort in the north, where the store managers go for a business conference, and so we also learn about public baths and bathing "etiquette."

Other novels in the series delve into the world of Japanese arts, folk culture, antiques, and religion. We see Japan while following the exploits of the main character, Rei Shimura - English teacher, aficionada of Japanese folk arts, antiques dealer, and sometime spy. She is also a haafu (half Japanese), with close relatives in both Japan and America, which gives her insight into both cultures. She appears in The Flower Master, The Bride's Kimono, Zen Attitude, and The Typhoon Lover, among others written by Sujata Massey.

Sujata Massey herself is part Indian and part German, but grew up in California. She spent many years in Japan teaching English and studying Japanese and says that, in Japan, she feels more at home than in India.