Customer Reviews

A Samurai Never Fears Death (The Samurai Mysteries)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
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I am a retired lover of historical fiction, and this is a youth book, but I loved it nevertheless. (I confess I have also read all of the Harry Potter books.) Good writing for the youth market can be very good indeed, even if the language lacks complexity, because it needs to grab and hold a reader who is likely to lack patience.

The authors' "Samurai Mysteries" are extremely authentic, and the youthful hero is easy to like. He is sufficiently complex for adult readers, and the authors' infusion of Japanese history is never preachy or artificial.

This is a quick and enjoyable read, and had someone given me a book like this around age 12, I would have been immensely pleased.

In the first book the hero was a 14-year-old boy named Seikei who was born into a merchant family. He was made fun of because of his dream to become a samurai. While on a business trip with his father there was a stolen jewel. Seikei helped a famous Shogun's official named Judge Ooka solve the mystery. Because of his bravery and wit his dream came true and he was adopted by the judge. This made him a samurai.

Now, two years later he travels back to Osaka where he was born and visits his brother Denzaburo and his sister Asako. Denzaburo had taken over the family business from Seikei's aging father. The business was prospering. They go to a puppet theater where a narrator was strangled to death right before they arrived. Seikei must uncover the mystery of his death.

Later Seikei learns that the theater had been using a play to signal a gang of thieves, telling them what to steal for the merchants who know about their charade. Seikei is shocked to discover that his brother's business is doing so well because he is working with the gang too.

Seikei follows clues to the gang's hideout but is attacked and knocked out. When he wakes up he finds himself on a boat with the gang. One of the Shogun's ships spots them and starts chasing. The gang pushes Seikei into the sea in order to escape. The Shogun's ship stops to rescue Seikei.

When he gets back to shore he decides to investigate the theater further. When he gets there he hears a voice. Is it a ghost or the killer? Will Seikei survive?

If you like Japan, mysteries, samurai, and suspense then you got to read A Samurai Never Fears Death. It is a one of my favorite books!

A nice book. I enjoyed every chapter of this book and again 5 out of 5. I recommend this book to anyone who likes mysteries and want to learn more about Japanese culture. (it doesnt focus enterly on Japanese culture but gives you the basic defenation).

I've read them all - they are really fun. I wish there were more books in the series.

I think of these as being like a younger version of the Robert Van Gulik "Judge Dee"stories - Judge Dee was of course Chinese, while Judge Ooka is Japanese.

I lived in Japan, I've studied a lot about medieval Japan, these are well done and entertaining. The boy is wonderfully naive. The books rate fairly well in terms of historical accuracy, and the plots are well done.

This is the fifth book in the Samurai Mysteries series by the Hooblers. There are six books total in this series. This was another good book in this series although I didn't like it quite as much as the previous book "The Sword That Cut the Burning Grass (The Samurai Mysteries)".

In this book Seikei ventures back to his home town of Osaka. The Judge sends him on a mission to find a good place to eat Fugi (poisonous puffer fish). Seikei stops by home and finds his brother in charge of the family business. They go to a puppet show and one of the cast members is murdered. Seikei takes it upon himself to solves this horrible crime, hoping that he can figure out who the killer is before the facts to Judge Ooka. Inadvertently Seikei finds that the puppet theater murders may be part of an even bigger smuggling scheme.

It was great to get some more history about Seikei's family and meet his sister and brother. Each of these books has focused on some aspect of Japanese history and this book focused on Japanese puppet theaters. There was a lot to learn about how Japanese puppet theaters were run. There was also some focus on trading and importation laws.

There wasn't as much action and adventure in this book as in previous ones. It all takes place in Seikei's home town. It was novel that Seikei felt confidant enough to take this case on himself without the Judge's guidance, so from that aspect Seikei grows some as a character. While the mystery was interesting it wasn't as desperate or engaging as the last couple books have been.

Overall an okay read. Learning about Japanese puppet theater was interesting. Seikei grows some as a character and takes the initiative on this investigation. But there is a lot less action and adventure and parts of the book were kind of slow.