Blade of the Samurai: A Shinobi Mystery (Shinobi Mysteries)

Blade of the Samurai is an outstanding historical mystery set in Japan during the shogunate. Despite the pressures for globalization, modern Japanese culture remains highly distinctive. In 1565, it was even more difficult to understand. The author has solved the problem by having a local man act as interpreter and bodyguard to a foreigner. Our point of view protagonist therefore explains and interprets those events so the visitor can make sense of them.

What adds to the enjoyment of the history is a most elegant mystery that grows out of the politics of the time. In the quasi-military organization with the shogun at the top, there are always factions vying for power. This time, a man is killed just as one faction leader is about to visit. This could be the harbinger of an assassination attempt. The investigation therefore has to balance possible motive and opportunity for a “private” murder against the possibility this may be the first step in a plot to kill the shogun. All this is told in stripped down prose as we edge carefully through the thickets of confusion and emerge on to the plain of revelation as the killer is unmasked and uncertainty over the threat to the shogun is resolved.