Customer Reviews

Secret of the Samurai Sword

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M's Whitney has written many wonderful mystery books that have as their location popular travel spots - Greece, Scotland as well as something more familiar such as Staten Island (M's Whitney's home town). In this book, the action takes place in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. Since M's Whitney lived in Japan until she was fifteen years old, she has a different view than the average tourist.

The premise is two young teenagers, Celia and Stephen Bronson, visit their grandmother in Kyoto. Sounds relatively simple, right? But at the grandmother's house, in the garden in fact, appears to be the ghost of a samurai. One of the neighbors, Gentaro Sato, believes it is his ancestor trying to contact him.

Gentaro Sato, a distiguished Japanese artist, is also very hostile to the new American neighbors. He is not happy that his granddaughter Sumiko spends so much time with Celia and wants Sumiko to conform to Japanese tradition.

This book is much more than a mystery - it shows you how people of various backgrounds can come together and become friends. It tells you of various cultures and the spiritual beliefs that exist in these cultures. The book makes it easy to learn of Japanese culture by incorporating it into the flow of the story.

I recommend this book highly for anyone who likes a good mystery with a little history thrown in with it.