Format: mobi/epub
Genre: Historical/Mystery/Thriller
Date: 1993 - 17 September 2013

The Sano Ichiro series deal with the experiences of Sano Ichiro, a samurai and minor official in Feudal Japan.

Throughout the stories, Sano constantly had to deal with his problems following the code of bushido while serving both justice and his master, the Shogun; and with his wife, Ueda Reiko who frequently involves herself in Sano's investigations.

Shinju (#1) (1993)

It is January 1689 in Edo, the city that would one day become Tokyo. The bodies of a beautiful noblewoman and a male commoner, bound together, are dragged from the murky Sumida River: a typical shinju, a ritual double suicide committed by a pair of star-crossed lovers. But when Sano Ichiro, a teacher, samurai, and reluctant police officer, begins a routine investigation, he comes to suspect murder.

Disobeying direct orders to close the case discreetly, he pursues elusive answers from the ornate mansions of the highest born daimyos, to the gaudy pleasure quarters of the lowest classes, from a cloistered mountaintop convent to a horrid prison where death is a blessing. He risks his family's good name and his own life to solve a crime that nobody wants solved.

As he unravels the twisted story behind the deaths, he stumbles upon a trail of deceit and assassination that threatens the very underpinnings of the shogun's Japan.

Bundori (#2) (1996)
The Way of the Traitor (#3) (1997)
The Concubine's Tattoo (#4) (1998)
The Samurai's Wife (#5) (2000)
Black Lotus (#6) (2001)
The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria (#7) (2002)
The Dragon King's Palace (#8) (2003)
The Perfumed Sleeve (#9) (2004)
The Assassin's Touch (#10) (2005)
Red Chrysanthemum (#11) (2006)
The Snow Empress (#12) (2007)
The Fire Kimono (#13) (2008)
The Cloud Pavilion (#14) (2009)
The Ronin's Mistress (#15) (2011)
The Incense Game (#16) (2012)
The Shogun's Daughter (#17) (2013)

Author:

Granddaughter of Chinese and Korean immigrants, Laura Joh Rowland grew up in Michigan and where she graduated with a B.S. in microbiology and a Master of Public Health at the University of Michigan. She currently lives in New Orleans with her husband. She has worked as a chemist, microbiologist, sanitary inspector and quality engineer.