Okay, I liked the story, but I expected more, I'm not sure yet what, but I just wanted more. When Reiko has to confide and then is betrayed I don't know.. I feel like she should never have gotten close to Yanagisaw's crazy wife. She knew she was nutso in the beginning. And Hirata not sending word (one of the men back to Sano)? That was really out of character for him... Though it might set up future doubts between him and Sano.. I still am iffy about the way Reiko was going to sacrafice herself for everyone and taking advice from the Yanagisaw's loony wife was a bit of a jumping the shark for me.

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The entourage accompanying the shogun's mother on a spiritual retreat have either been slaughtered or kidnapped by unidentified Dragon King. One of those who was kidnapped was Reiko, the beautiful wife of the Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People, Sano Ichiro. The shogun has received demands for the release of his mother, which includes the execution of the Police Commissioner Hoshina, a political rival of Sano. The mercurial shogun is eager to comply with the kidnapper's demands but Sano convinces him to delay the execution fearing that those kidnapped would still be murdered. Sano needs to quickly investigate the crime, determine the reason for the execution request, determine where the shogun's mother and his wife is being held and rescue them before the shogun becomes inpatient.

This historical mystery is one of several in the Sano Ichiro series and is the second one I have read. Although I found the aspects of the novel which spotlit Sano's spirited, intelligent and assertive wife, Reiko, I found much of the political intrigue tedious. ( )

This is part of Rowland's Sano Ichiro Mystery series. The novel takes place in the late 1600s in Feudal Japan. The shogun's mother decides to take a trip to Mount Fuji and invites three women to be her traveling companions. The women are Reiko, the wife of Sano Ichiro - the shogun's Most Honorable Investigator; Reiko's friend Midori, the wife of Sano Ichiro's chief retainer; and Lady Yanagisawa, the wife of the shogan's Chamberlain. The three women are reluctant to accompany the shogun's mother, but they have no choice but to obey her wishes. On route to Mount Fuji, the party is attacked by ruthless warriors who kidnap the four women and kill everyone else. Political enemies, Sano Ichiro and Chamberlain Yanagisawa must work together to find out who kidnapped the shogun's mother and their wives and what the kidnapper wants. In the meantime, Reiko does not want to wait to be rescued and begins to try to find a way to escape.

I had a really hard time getting into the book. Part of the problem may have been that this is the eighth book in the series and I have not read any of the others. While the earlier books weren't necessary, I think that having a familiarity with the background and animosity of Sano Ichiro and Chamberlain Yanagisawa might have made the political maneuvering and forced partnership more interesting. I found that the characters were not fleshed out as much as I would like, and I think that is because the reader is expected to have a lot of the characters' background information from previous novels in the series. Overall the book was just OK, I am not sorry that I chose to read the book but I will probably not read any of the other books in the series. ( )

A definite improvement over Pillow Book. Sano's wife, as well as the Shogun's mother, and Hirata and Yanagisawa's wives are kidnapped by someone identified only as "the Dragon King". The Shogun's desperation to rescue his mother forces Sano and Yanagisawa to work together if only to save their own skins, and because of the Dragon King's machinations, Yanagisawa is forced to break his alliance with Hoshina.

Again, the mystery seems like the backstory despite being the main focus of the novel, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Shaking up the political status quo made this an excellent read, and the ramifications of the fracturing in the Shogun's court as a result of this investigation is shaping up to be a greatly entertaining plot for future novels. ( )

Number 8 in the 'Sancho Ichiro' Series ( )