The Hell Screen (Penguin Mysteries) (Paperback)

by I. J. Parker (Author)
Key Phrases: hell screen, demon chase, bamboo whips, Miss Plumblossom, Lady Sugawara, New Year (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Fascinating historical detail and well-drawn characters distinguish Shamus-winner Parker's second Japanese mystery (after 2002's well-received Rashomon Gate). On his way back to the capital city of Heian Kyo (now Kyoto), Lord Sugawara Akitada, a government official with a knack for stumbling into crime, stops at a monastery to shake off the cold and get a few hours sleep. Other guests of the Buddhist monks include a well-dressed woman and her companion, a troupe of actors and a renowned artist. After Akitada views the artist's work-in-progress, aptly called the "Hell Screen," his sleep is filled with nightmarish images and a bloodcurdling scream. Not sure whether he was dreaming, Akitada wanders around the monastery but finds nothing amiss. After an early morning departure, Akitada arrives at his ancestral home to visit his dying mother and soon learns of a heinous murder. Realizing the crime took place at the monastery where he slept, Akitada can't resist investigating. Many complications and subplots ensue, all rendered in expertly evocative prose. Parker's remarkable command of 11th-century Japanese history-from the rituals of the royal court to the minutia of daily life within Japan's often rigid caste system-makes for an excellent whodunit. Readers will be enchanted by Akitada, an honorable sleuth who proves more progressive than his time.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
Parker has crafted another exotic and compelling mystery set in eleventh-century Japan and featuring government official and sometime detective Akitada Sugawara. Journeying home to attend to his dying mother, Akitada seeks shelter at a monastic temple during a storm. Exhausted and disoriented, he is inextricably drawn to an artistically rendered, yet horrifically realistic, hell screen depicting a variety of gruesome death scenes. When a young woman is murdered during the night, Akitada becomes embroiled^B in a complex investigation that involves members of his own family. Exposing the brazen theft of an identity, the wily Akitada is able to untangle the strands of a cleverly plotted series of murders. This intriguing combination of history and suspense is distinguished by a wealth of authentic cultural detail. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Reprint edition (June 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143035622
• ISBN-13: 978-0143035626
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #237,290 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "What sort of mind could call up such scenes of horror?", February 21, 2004

By	Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: The Hell Screen: A Mystery of Ancient Japan (Hardcover)

In a dramatic opening scene, a woman and an unconscious man wait in the darkness of a monastery cell for the woman's lover, who arrives bearing the body of a another young woman. Annoyed when her lover shows signs of weakness and has qualms about beheading the corpse, the woman begins the gory process herself. The reader quickly becomes caught up in the action as a former official in the Justice Department, also spending the night at the same monastery, begins an investigation into the murder. Clever deduction, additional gory murders, threats to the life of the investigator, and his single-minded dedication to unmasking the murderers, while combatting professional jealousies among his peers, make this an exciting addition to the traditional murder mystery genre.

Only the structure of the novel is traditional, however, for this murder takes place in eleventh century Japan, and the detective is Lord Akitada Sugawara. Seen primarily as a family man, he is fully drawn, a man with foibles and failings, in addition to high ideals of honor. As Akitada investigates the murder, the author subtly develops the intellectual climate of the times: the use of hell screens in Buddhist monasteries to instill the fear of death, the value placed on antiquities and the scholarly life, and the integration of art (calligraphy, painting, elaborate embroidering, and flute-playing) into the lives of the characters. Customs, including the payment of dowries, the leaving of paper messages at local shrines, the social separations between classes, funeral and mourning customs, and the obligations of the aristocracy to the court, combine gracefully with period details, even including the kind of straw raincoat and headcovering worn by travelers, and the number of finely made, colorful silk gowns worn under a woman's kimono.

Intelligent and impelled to action more by his passions than by his sense of duty, Akitada comes alive, while his "helpers"--Tora, a former soldier, and Genba, a former wrestler--add liveliness, spark, and comic relief to the novel. Tora falls in love with an acrobat/actress, and Genba falls for the immense owner of an athletic training hall, a wonderful character named Miss Plumblossom, who is an expert in stick-fighting. The author's ability to reveal emotion through gestures (a hand on a servant's shoulder and the servant touching the fingers in return) is matched by her ability to describe scenes of humor, love, and torment. In short, she recreates life in its beauty and sorrow as lived by characters with whom the reader will feel a kinship, despite the unusual setting in another country over a millennium ago. Mary Whipple

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent mystery, February 28, 2004

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Hell Screen: A Mystery of Ancient Japan (Hardcover)

I.J. Parker's "Rashomon Gate" was a solid, multilayered mystery that strays away from the typical twentieth-century American/British settings. The attention to detail, humor and horror intertwine to make her second book "The Hell Screen: A Mystery of Ancient Japan" even more likable than the first.

Sugawara Akitada is returning to Heian Kyo (Kyoto) after a time as a provisional governer far from home. He rides ahead of his beloved wife and young son, since his mother is dying and he wants to get there before she does die. When he spends the night at a Buddhist monastery along the way, he hears a scream in the middle of the night -- and when he returns to Heian Kyo, he learns that a woman was murdered by her brother-in-law that night.

To make things even worse, his sister Akiko's new husband is accused of stealing imperial treasures. Looking for the stolen objects leads him back to the murdered woman, and a disturbing secret about his own family: His other sister, Yoshiko, is in love with the man who seems to have murdered his sister-in-law. Perhaps most horrifyingly, he will learn the grisly secret behind the monastery's graphic depiction of torture, the "hell screen."

The basics of your average murder mystery are here: A lot of clues, coverups, clever tricks, red herrings, a persistent detective and a disgruntled cop. The setting is unusual in itself, since most mysteries don't dip into Heian-era Japan, which is shown in rich detail in "Hell Screen." Parker has clearly done her research. She doesn't overwhelm you with too many details of her research, just letting it flow.

Parker also shows her ability to manage subplots: Akitada is distracted by his mother's rage toward him, and a startling secret about his parentage. We also get to see more of Genba and Tora, a pair of ex-ruffians who work for Akitada. There's also more humor in this book than in "Rashomon Gate," as if Parker has loosened up. (Exhibit A: The imposing, obese acrobat, Miss Plumblossom, and what she does to poor Tora) As in the first book, there are multiple crimes with multiple guilty parties -- theft, cold-blooded financial murder, and even a serial killer.

Akitada is a good detective. He's smart and has a logical mind, while still being flawed; his carelessness almost gets him killed at one point. Tora and Genba serve as good backups, and police superintendent Kobe is still stubborn and unwilling to take Akitada's help. Additionally, Akitada's sister Yoshiko -- a minor character in the first book -- gets to go front and center when she tries to stand by her imprisoned lover.

Mystery fans will enjoy Parker's second mystery set in Heian-era Japan, and the likable hero and characters she's crafted for it. "Hell Screen: A Mystery of Ancient Japan" is a solid sequel, and highly recommended.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ms. James does it again!, August 27, 2004

By	Gypsi Phillips Bates "bilbiophile" (Knoxville, TN, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Hell Screen: A Mystery of Ancient Japan (Hardcover)

At a temple outside Heian Kyo, the wife of a wealthy antique dealer is found, brutally murdered, in the room of her brother-in-law, who is immediately arrested for murder. He claims he did not do it, but he has no remembrance of the evening at all.

Akitada is just returning to Heian Kyo from several years as a provincial governor, and present the temple on the night of the murder. He hears a woman scream that evening, but it is not until several days later that he learns of the crime. Despite Inspector Kobe's reluctance, Akitada turns his deductive skills to the case, while also trying to remove his own brother-in-law out of a bit of a potentially ruining situation.

Meanwhile, Akitada's servant, the womanizing Tora, decides to prove his deductive prowess, and find "the slasher" that is mutilating women in the Pleasure Quarters. He has seen the slasher's work and is determined to stop him.

As with the first Akitada novel, there is a lot going on. But, Ms. Parker pulls it off with style and intelligence. The descriptions of eleventh-century Japan are detailed, and yet casual so that the reader doesn't feel that history is being pushed down the throat. Akitada and his friends and family are convincingly real and the plot is credible.

On the whole, this five star mystery is a worthy successor to (also five star) Rashomon Gate and Ms. Parker keeps rising in my esteem as a gifted author.