Village of the Vampire Cat [Hardcover]

Lensey Namioka (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1981

When a young ronin returns to the village of his former teacher, he and his companion find it being terrorized by a mysterious killer.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lensey Namioka was born in Beijing, China. Her family moved to the US when she was eight. She attended public schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She majored in mathematics at Radcliffe College and the University of California in Berkeley. She taught mathematics before turning to writing. She lives in Seattle with her mathematician husband, who is Japanese. They have two daughters and three grandchildren.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Delacorte Pr (April 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385291167
• ISBN-13: 978-0385291163
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,447,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Different from other Zenta/Matsuzo mysteries, July 9, 2011

By 

scholarship (VA, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Village of the Vampire Cat (Zenta and Matsuzo Mystery) (Paperback)

This is an excellent book - a great fast-paced story that can be enjoyed by adults as well as the young adult age group the author recommends it for (12-15). However, compared to the other Zenta/Matsuzo mysteries I have read (den of the white fox, island of ogres, valley of the broken cherry trees), it is MUCH, MUCH DARKER. I bought the books for my 7-yr-old, who is a great reader and loves both samurai and mysteries. In the other 3 books, there are fight scenes, obviously, and a mystery which is a little scary, obviously, but there is also a lot of humor. Enemies are defeated most often by wits that by plain slaughter. They are OK for very young readers, like her, who understand that samurai are warriors who kill. The mysteries are good and solved neatly in the end, like in Poirot stories (which she also likes), and there is a happy ending.

This book however, contains a very gruesome crime (with the possibility of a sexual element) that must be solved, and the reality is much more disturbing than the supernatural explanation - the vampire cat. There is a horrifying psychotic killer and some graphic hara-kiri scenes involving important characters (one which brought me to tears). The ending is neat, with a few happy wrap-ups, but definitely not all happy.

i could not let my young daughter read this one of the series. It is quite different from the others in the level of maturity it requires from the reader.

5.0 out of 5 stars Major storytelling here!!, November 28, 2000

By 

"gamemeister3" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Village of the Vampire Cat (Hardcover)

I had this book for a long time and have read it at least five times.This book basically puts you into it and you can almost feel the cold environment as well as feel the chills and suspense that laces the book throughout.I found that it also captures Japan in a rare and realistic way. A must buy....when and if you can find a copy.

5.0 out of 5 stars great book, June 4, 2000

By 

Kathy Fink (Camarillo) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Village of the Vampire Cat (Hardcover)

This is truly a great book. It may not be great as in deep and spiritual, but great as in really, really fun to read. It is too bad that this book is out of print. It deserves to be a bestseller.