Customer Reviews

The Samurai's Wife

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In 1691 Japan, Imperial Minister Konoe Bokuden searches for any noble threatening the rule of his Shogun. However, the minister must have gotten too close to uncovering a plot because, an unknown assailant, applying the extremely difficult to master and therefore rarely used spirit cry of kiai, kills Konoe.

The Shogun sends his Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People, Sano Ichiro to make inquiries into the death of Konoe and to uncover what the minister learned. Sano knows he must succeed because the failure of his previous case not only dishonored him but also left the Shogun wondering whether to replace him. Over his initial objections and his fears how the Shogun will react, his new wife Reiko insists on helping him with this dangerous case. As the newlyweds get closer to the truth, their lives and that of the nobility is endangered, as civil war seems eminent unless they can expose the culprit.

THE SAMURAI'S WIFE, the fourth historical mystery starring the Samurai Detective Sano, continues in the tradition of providing readers with entertaining novels. The who-done-it is cleverly designed and the lead couple is a fascinating duo working as a team over Sano's objections. However, what makes talented author Laura Joh Rowland's novel a jubilation for historical fans is the resplendent descriptions of Feudal Japan that makes the audience feel they are visiting the island in the late seventeenth century.

Harriet Klausner

When I read Shinju, the first book in this series, I thought I was reading a very good account of life in feudal Japan. So I continued the series. My library didn't carry The Concubine's Tattoo and the Way of the Traitor, so I skipped from Bundori to this book.

Laura Joh Rowland has taken something good and made it even better. Always, Sano Ichiro is plagued by issues with his honor and loyalty to Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. His rival, Chamberlain Yanagisawa is still trying to destroy him. He has another life and death mission to finish. And now he has a fiery, headstrong wife, Reiko-chan, at his side. Things don't look good for Sano Ichiro.

Heian Kyo, now known as Kyoto, or merely Miyaki, is a world stuck in the past. Hundreds of years previously, the Japanese Emperors ruled Japan from this spot. Since then, the capital has moved to Kamakura, and now Edo (now Tokyo). It is a world living on a pension from the bakufu (government). It is a world suspended in the relics and traditions of the past. It is a place where a dastardly murder has occurred.

The Samurai's Wife is a high-flying adventure through ancient Japan. I suggest you get this book. You'll never put it down.

I really enjoyed this book. It was the best of the Sano Ichiro books I have read so far (I can't wait to read "The Perfumed Sleeve"). It was really enrapturing, and this is just a little bit better than "The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria".
The characters in this one were really interesting, at times you almost want to root for the suspects, such as: Lady Jokyoden. Besides from the fact that it was good, it was informative.The culture is really well researched.
Some people may think it's a little over the top, with all the "events", but things like this probably happened in 1600's Japan. It's dramatic but believable and this plot was cool, because it incorporated the imperial family. Who didn't even govern the country, but were just considered living gods.
If you've read the other ones you have to read this, it's the best.

This was one of the finest books I have read on ancient Japan. The author totally understands the rankings of people in relationship to their social class position in old Japan. I personally lived in Japan for 17 years and studied ancinet Japanese history. This book makes you feel as if you are living in the times of the story timeframe.

Although The Samurai's Wife was not as thrilling,heart stopping, or page turning(and without as much sex,thank god)as The Cancubine's tattoo,it is most definitly extremely good reading.as are all of Ms.Rowland's books.She always seems to come up with this unpredictable or unexpected outcome.Which,in retrospect,always fits seemlessly into place with the other puzzle pieces.I have given up tying to figure out how she does it.ALONG with the main mystery she always tucks in other small ones, clues within clues.AND as an added bonus for this book she had Yanagisawa(whom we all have grown to love and hate)start to behave honorably and stand up to his inner demons and allow himself to be true to himself.We also grow to know our hero in new ways as Sano's loveand dark past collide in conflicting desires.The best and worst are brought out in all the characters,to be conqored or accepted as seen fit by thier own strength of will and charicature.The Samurai's Wife is a treat to read that will change the way the characters relate to each other,the outside world,and how they viewthemselves.

As a Japanophile I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The characters were very well developed and seemed appropriate for the power struggles that must have been involved in the Imperial palace sociopoliticle environs. I visited Kyoto (Miyako) 2 years ago and was able to visualize Nijo Palace and the Imperial Palace again. The Gion district was described interestingly from a historical perspective. The main character was so likeable as a man of honor and moral strength although human. His fiesty wife was fun too. great story.

This is another page turner of the first order. Laura Joh Rowland continues to write a complex plot, while she develops the central characters we have met previously in her last three mysteries.

I throughly enjoyed this book and believe that Ms. Rowland continues to give her reader a view of fuedal Japan, together with a story line which is both captivating and exciting.

I await her next book with baited breath.

I recommend this book, as well as her last three Samurai mysteries without any reservation.

Reading one of Lura Joh Rowland's Sano Ichiro mysteries is to relive medieval Japan. Her descriptions of place and costume are so archaeologically detailed one can easily imagine the swirl and color, and perhaps some of the odors. (Why do foreigner's wear "costumes" while we wear "clothes?") This time Ichiro is tasked with solving a frightening murder in another city that may threaten the reclusive Emperor, and not just Ichiro's commander, the shogun in Edo. It therefore threatens the balance and stability of Japanese political affairs, especially since both shogun and emperor are testy and incompetent, a very difficult situation for inquisitive courtiers. Ichiro has to grovel so as not to offend the most-high people he may accuse, and thus rupture Japanese society. The jealous and competitive high-ranking officials have their own agendas and promotions to push as well. Very ticklish, especially when someone seems to have obtained guns.

I suppose we have to accept the wildly feminist notion that a samurai's wife does not have to stay home, but can campaign against evil alongside her husband--if the author is to continue writing these enthralling stories. Introduced in the previous novel, The Concubine's Tattoo, one has to wonder what Lady Reiko will do if she becomes a mother in a later novel. Does her samurai soskan-sama change diapers? I guess we have to accept these anachronisms to enjoy Rowland's otherwise acute awareness and sense of ancient context and landscape. Someone who cares less about the atmosphere in a novel may chafe at the stilted language and ritual of courtly interaction, the servile delicacy with which all social relations are imbued, the status relationships embedded in the very language, and the rare "action." I find the suspects are always inscrutable, except for the constant malevolence of Ichiro's superior, the awful Chamberlain Yanagasawa. Even that hitherto baleful presence may be changing for Ichiro's life, along with having to accommodate an insubordinate wife who WILL find the killer.

excellent and compelling view of feudal japan. almost on a par with van guliks judge dee. preoccupation with reikos wanting to be a man is disruptive and annoying. rowland should find another avenue for her feminist frustrations and keep her excellent interpretation of feudal japan pure.

Ever since I read Shogun I've enjoyed books set in ancient Japan. The Samauri's Wife is really good at capturing life in the Land of the Rising Sun except for one thing:A samurai would've rid himself of a wife like Reiko. Her character is totally unrealistic. The average well to do Japanese lady of this time period did not behave like this at all. Historical fiction is one thing, fantasy fiction is another.

On top of this problem, the character of Reiko is annoying. Her prime function seemed to be to get in her husband's way. I found myself hoping that Sano would turn to the bald headed nun. The most compelling love story the book was between Sano's arch rival, the Shogan's second in command and his cunning new lover, Hoshino. There are more books in this series but this it for me.