Masuda Affair (A Sugawara Akitada Mystery) - Hardcover

Parker, I.J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0727869256 ISBN 13: 9780727869258

Publisher: Severn House, 2010

Synopsis

A Sugawara Akitada Mystery of Ancient Japan - Eleventh-century Japan. Government official Sugawara Akitada finds a small mute boy on a deserted road. Akitada, still grieving for his own small son, determines to find the boy’s parents. Meanwhile, Akitada’s faithful servant Tora has troubles of his own: he has lost his new bride to a powerful man who pursues beautiful women and will stop at nothing to possess them. The trails of these two seemingly unrelated cases lead Akitada and Tora to the entertainers and prostitutes of the amusement quarter, and murder follows in their footsteps . . .

About this title

Reviews

Starred Review. More than half of Parker's terrific seventh historical set in 11th-century Japan (after 2009's The Convict's Sword) goes by before Sugawara Akitada, senior secretary in the ministry of justice, has a definite murder to solve, but a personal crisis in Sugawara's life--the death of his young son, Yori, from smallpox--more than sustains interest, providing the trigger for a series of events that involve him in the case of Peony, a courtesan whose drowning years earlier was ruled a suicide. On the first night of a festival when the spirits of the dead return home, Sugawara meets an emaciated abandoned child who reminds him of Yori. His efforts to rescue the boy from the abusive people claiming to be his parents land him in trouble with the law and entangle him in the secrets of the noble Masuda family, reputed to be the subject of a curse. The evolving relationship between Sugawara and his wife, Tamako, adds depth. (Nov.) (c)
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Readers looking for a new historical mystery with a twist will find what they’re after in Parker’s latest Sugawara Akitada mystery, set in eleventh-century Japan. Akitada, a senior secretary in the Ministry of Justice, is on his way home from a case in a nearby town when he spies a small boy—emaciated, bruised, and tearful—by the side of the road. The child tugs at Akitada’s heart because his own young son died just months earlier. But no sooner has Akitada decided to take the seemingly abandoned child home with him than he is accused by the child’s parents of kidnapping. And here begins Akitada’s most bizarre case, which involves the boy, a dead geisha named Peony, the servant Tora’s mysterious disappearance, an ill-fated love affair with terrible consequences, and a dark secret kept by one of the region’s wealthiest families. With so many disparate subplots, it’s sometimes difficult to see how Parker will tie all the threads together by the end of the book, but she does so in an unexpectedly clever way. An intriguing glimpse into an ancient culture. --Emily Melton

Edition details

• Publisher: Severn House
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0727869256
• ISBN 13: 9780727869258
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240