Book Log #2: Shinjū, by Laura Joh Rowland
Jan. 22nd, 2008 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperI actually read this book several days ago, but am only just now getting enough brain back together to get the review post posted. So here it is!
This is the first of a series set in feudal-era Japan and featuring the adventures of a samurai called Sano Ichiro, described on the back cover as the local shogun's "Most Honorable Investigator of People, Places, and Events". Which should give you some idea of the flavor of this book right off: it is in fact a series about a samurai detective.
This should sound silly. However, I have to hand it to Rowland for making the idea work. It helps a lot that her setting is very well detailed, and, if the Wikipedia page on her is to be believed, credibly researched; it certainly felt real to me as a reader. And it helps as well that she set the book late enough in Japanese history that she could maneuver a critical side character into a position where he would be familiar with certain basic Western medicine concepts that, while they got him exiled from Japanese society at large, also give the plot an excuse to have someone conduct autopsies for the hero.
Persons far more familiar with Japanese history and culture than I could probably pick the book apart. However, it worked for me, and I enjoyed seeing familiar mystery plot tropes in such an unusual setting. You have an intriguing selection of suspects, motives and counter-motives, blackmail, red herrings, and even a plot against the shogun.
Even though I couldn't help but think of baseball every time I read the character's name (this is what I get for living in Seattle and having at least some passing familiarity with the team roster for the Mariners), I still quite liked Sano Ichiro as he struggled to find a balance between his honor, his duty to his family and his superiors, and his innate desire to see truth and justice done. I'll be checking out at least one more of his adventures, and then reading![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solarbird's copy of the third book. For this one, three and a half stars.
This is the first of a series set in feudal-era Japan and featuring the adventures of a samurai called Sano Ichiro, described on the back cover as the local shogun's "Most Honorable Investigator of People, Places, and Events". Which should give you some idea of the flavor of this book right off: it is in fact a series about a samurai detective.
This should sound silly. However, I have to hand it to Rowland for making the idea work. It helps a lot that her setting is very well detailed, and, if the Wikipedia page on her is to be believed, credibly researched; it certainly felt real to me as a reader. And it helps as well that she set the book late enough in Japanese history that she could maneuver a critical side character into a position where he would be familiar with certain basic Western medicine concepts that, while they got him exiled from Japanese society at large, also give the plot an excuse to have someone conduct autopsies for the hero.
Persons far more familiar with Japanese history and culture than I could probably pick the book apart. However, it worked for me, and I enjoyed seeing familiar mystery plot tropes in such an unusual setting. You have an intriguing selection of suspects, motives and counter-motives, blackmail, red herrings, and even a plot against the shogun.
Even though I couldn't help but think of baseball every time I read the character's name (this is what I get for living in Seattle and having at least some passing familiarity with the team roster for the Mariners), I still quite liked Sano Ichiro as he struggled to find a balance between his honor, his duty to his family and his superiors, and his innate desire to see truth and justice done. I'll be checking out at least one more of his adventures, and then reading
solarbird's copy of the third book. For this one, three and a half stars.
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Date: 2008-01-23 02:40 pm (UTC)i love LJR
Date: 2008-01-23 01:15 pm (UTC)Re: i love LJR
Date: 2008-01-23 02:37 pm (UTC)