The Concubine's Tattoo [Hardcover]

Laura Joh Rowland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1998

Twenty months spent as the shogun's sosakan-sama--most honorable investigator of events, situations, and people--has left Sano Ichiro weary. He looks forward to the comforts that his arranged marriage promises: a private life with a sweet, submissive wife and a month's holiday to celebrate their union. However, the death of the shogun's favorite concubine interrupts the couple's wedding ceremony and shatters any hopes the samurai detective had about enjoying a little peace with his new wife.

After Sano traces the cause of Lady Harume's death to a self-inflicted tattoo, he must travel into the cloistered, forbidden world of the shogun's women to untangle the complicated web of Harume's lovers, rivals, and troubled past, and identify her killer.

To make matters worse, Reiko, his beautiful young bride, reveals herself to be not a traditional, obedient wife, but instead, a headstrong, intelligent, aspiring detective bent on helping Sano with his new case. Sano is horrified at her unladylike behavior, and the resulting sparks make their budding love as exciting as they mystery surrounding Lady Harume's death.

Amid the heightened tensions and political machinations of feudal Japan. Sano faces a daunting complex investigation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rowland once again delivers a mystery laden with details of period and place, with strong portrayals of palace intrigue in 17th-century Japan. Sano Ichiro has risen to the rank of Most Honorable Investigator for the shogun in 1690 Japan. As his fourth adventure (after 1997's The Way of the Traitor) begins, he is marrying the beautiful Lady Ueda Reiko. The wedding is interrupted by the sudden death of Hamune, one of the shogun's concubines, the victim of poisoned ink that Hamune used to give herself an intimate tattoo. Sano's investigation requires extraordinary skill and care, for failure in a case involving the shogun's household could mean his death. Suspects include Yanagisawa, Sano's bitter rival for the shogun's favor; a young officer who loved Harume; and other concubines who had much to lose as Harume gained the shogun's affections. Meanwhile, Reiko rebels against the submissive role of Japanese wife and insists on helping in the investigation. The book suffers, as Rowland's previous novels have, from a common hazard of historical mysteries: the pace is weighed down by the very details with which the author so painstakingly bedecks her narrative. Even so, Rowland's understanding of the society she depicts shines through, and she succeeds in presenting Sano as an intriguing combination of wiliness and decency, making this a good bet for fans of historicals as well as of mysteries past.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

When a 17th-century shogun's favorite concubine suddenly dies, it falls to his chief investigator, Sano Ichiro, to discover how and why. Sano must interrupt his plans for a honeymoon; contend with an educated, wayward, and sleuthing wife; foil the wily machinations of his evil arch-nemesis (second-in-command to and longtime lover of the shogun); and still keep peace with his pusillanimous employer. A fascinating, well-researched, and action-filled costume adventure, perhaps even better than Rowland's The Way of the Traitor. (LJ 5/1/97).
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (December 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312192525
• ISBN-13: 978-0312192525
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,563,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

L AURA JOH ROWL AND, the author of thirteen previous Sano Ichiro mysteries 'demonstrating an impressive level of sustained excellence' (Publishers Weekly), lives in New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ms. Rowlands best so far., January 11, 2000

By 

Valiant G. Kanaga (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Concubine's Tattoo (Sano Ichiro Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Having read her entire Sano series to date, this one out does them all. More personality, and the suspense builds nicely to the end. Rieko is a great character addition to investigators team. The author could plan and plant the clues for the reader a little better but great reading over all.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical mystery can cause samurai night fever, February 3, 1999

By 

Author Bill Peschel "Writers Gone Wild" (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Concubine's Tattoo (Hardcover)

The Tokugawa shogunate in the 17th century has been a setting for a number of memorable works: the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa, Eiji Yoshikawa's epic novel "Mushashi," and James Clavell's "Shogun."

It's also the setting for this series of four novels by Laura Joh Rowland featuring Sano Ichiro, the most honorable investigator to the shogun.

When the shogun's favorite concubine is found poisoned, the discovery interrupts Sano's wedding feast as well as unleash a host of concerns. Was the killing an attempt to keep the shogun from begetting an heir? Will someone use the crime as a pretext for getting a rival out of the way?

Sano has good reason to be doubly concerned about the case: failure to find the culprit could mean a visit to the execution ground for himself, his assistant and his family.

Sano is also distracted by his bride, who is as spirited and unconventional as a 17th-century Katharine Hepburn. Their journey toward accommodation and compromise form a major part of the book.

One word of warning: many forms of copulation show up in "The Concubine's Tattoo," and its explicitness may prove unsettling to regular readers of the genre.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rich and Textured, May 21, 2000

By 

Shawna Lanne "Shawna" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Concubine's Tattoo (Sano Ichiro Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

The Concubine's Tattoo offers everything that I need in a mystery. It is set in an exotic, fascinating era, 17th century Japan. It has an engaging mystery, about the death of one of Shoguns concubines, Harume while she is illicitly tattooing her lovers' name in a secret place and there are many possible suspects. The main characters in the story are interesting and sympathetic people. She opens the story at the lead character, Sano Ichiro's arranged wedding to Reiko, a Japanese woman with a mind of her own. The untimely death of Harume interrupts the wedding festivities and immediately set Sano and Reiko in conflict because of their different ideas of were a woman' s place is.

There are many great subplots woven throughout the story and Rowland has managed to make Ichiro's enemy, Chamberlain Yanagisawa, a richly drawn and sympathetic character without losing his menace. Actually all of the important secondary characters are given a nice depth, as well as the main characters.

This was the fourth book in a Series of books about San Ichiro's work as the Shoguns investigator and the first that I have read. I am not a regular mystery reader, the plots are usually a bit to predictable for me and I do not like the genre enough to put up with shoddy writing. This book however, and I hope the series, was engaging on several different levels. While it is a stand-alone book it definitely peaked my interest in finding and reading all of the books in this series. This is an author that I look forward to enjoying for years to come.