Death at the Crossroads: A Samurai Mystery (Samurai Mysteries)

Description

Matsuyama Kaze is a "ronin," a Japanese knight errant. Kaze must travel across Japan until he fulfills a promise made to his dying Lord and Lady -- to find their nine-year-old daughter. As this masterless samurai searches the countryside, he is caught up in a series of mysteries that test his strength and skills as well as his Confucian training.

Kaze stumbles upon a corpse shot with an arrow at the crossroads leading to a small town. He becomes embroiled with an unlikely -- and untrustworthy -- cast of characters, who are as colorful as they are crafty. Each has secrets to keep and axes to grind, and it will take all of Kaze's subtlety, stealth, and Samurai skills to unravel the mystery and unmask the killer.

Richly atmospheric, filled with historically accurate detail, Death at the Crossroads evokes the world of long-ago Japan and the often lonely life of an honor-bound warrior. It's a spellbinding, deeply satisfying mystery that will leave readers hungry for the next chapter in Matsuyama Kaze's journey of adventure.

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The face of remarkable actor Toshiro Mifune might insist on looming up before your eyes as you read this engrossing new historical mystery about a rogue samurai warrior named Matsuyama Kaze ("Pine Mountain Wind" ) roaming through rural Japan in 1603--the year that began the long, oppressive reign of the Tokugawa Shogunate. In the first book of a planned trilogy, Dale Furutani first introduces us to Kaze in a scene straight from the Gregory Peck movie "The Gunfighter," as the wily, middle-aged samurai outwits a young challenger. Then, on the road to the country village of Suzaka, Kaze and a local charcoal seller find the body of a stranger, pierced by an arrow. The local lords are quick to pin the crime on a bandit chief, Boss Kuemon, but Kaze's investigation points to a less obvious killer. Telling his subtle, strong story, Furutani conjures up compelling images: "As he walked along the path, Kaze looked at the splashes of blue sky peeking through the woven branches of the trees. It was a constantly changing mosaic that recalled the intricately painted patterns on the expensive Satsuma porcelains he knew from his youth." Furutani's two modern mysteries, Death in Little Tokyo (which won an Anthony for best first novel) and The Toyotomi Blades, are available in paperback. --Dick Adler

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Jade Palace Vendetta: A Samurai Mystery (Samurai Mysteries)

Description

In Jade Palace Vendetta, Kaze continues the search to find his lord's missing child. This time out, Kaze is waylaid when he saves a helpless merchant from a vicious gang of killers and soon discovers that everything is not what it appears. He finds himself trapped in a web of deceit and violence, where a veneer of propriety hides great evil. Only Kaze's quick wit and martial skills can save him and keep him on his quest to find the kidnapped child.

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Kill the Shogun (Samurai Mysteries)

Description

In Kill the Shogun, award winning mystery writer Dale Furutani presents the latest in his popular samurai mystery series. He returns to the journey of Matsuyama Kaze, the masterless warrior destined to travel the seventeenth-century Japanese countryside until he fulfills the dying wish of his murdered lord's wife.Until now, Kaze's quick wit and samurai skills have enabled him to solve crimes, untangled himself from deadly schemes, and protect the innocent, all the while keeping his sense of justice and honor. But the danger now facing Kaze, from enemies known and unknown, is greater than ever.

Kaze is the closest he's ever come to fulfilling his quest to rescue his lord's kidnapped daughter. Following a trail of clues, he is led to Edo, the bustling new capital of Japan. Treading in unfamiliar territory , Kaze is the object of a deadly manhunt when an attempt on the Shogun's life fails. He must dodge his lord's rivals, even as he learns that the young girl has been sold into prostitution. In his quest to save her, Kaze teams up with an eccentric cast of local characters who bring feudal Japan to life. The samurai must clear his name and rescue the child as the odds against him grow.

With his sensitivity and stength, Matsuyama Kaze has been described by Publishers Weekly as embodying "both compassion and ruthlessness." Furutani deftly combines Kaze's compelling spirit,a complex plot, and an acute sense of historical detail to produce an exciting tale of one warrior's noble quest.

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Dale Furutani's Samurai Mystery Trilogy concludes with Kill the Shogun. In this book Matsuyama Kaze takes up his unfinished business from the previous adventures (Death at the Crossroads, Jade Palace Vendetta)--finding the daughter of his former patrons, his lord and lady who were massacred in the intrigues that attended an earlier change in the fortunes of Japan's 17th-century ruling class. Journeying to the capital of the new Japan, Edo, Kaze is catapulted once again into political intrigue when he is mistakenly identified as the would-be assassin of Tokugawa Iesyasu, the new Shogun.

As adept at disguise as he is at swordplay and as clever a reader of the mysteries of his enemies' minds as he is a private seeker of an ennobled spirituality, Kaze is a superhero who defeats the forces ranged against him by employing not only his own extraordinary physical and mental abilities, but the strength of his opponents as well. There's plenty of swordplay, including a fight with a band of ninjas, contract killers for one of the Shogun's rivals. There's also lots of palace intrigue and nicely rendered secondary characters, including a pair of peasants with theatrical ambitions, a young woman who's smitten by the Samurai, and, of course, the object of Kaze's quest, whom he manages to extricate from a brothel in the nick of time. Furutani makes a rarely evoked period come alive, with its distinctive mores, society, and class structure. If you haven't read the earlier books in this series, you'll probably want to when you've finished the concluding volume. --Jane Adams

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The Curious Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in Japan

Description

Sherlock Holmes fans know about the "missing years" - the time when Holmes traveled in Asia after his epic battle with Professor Moriarity. Now, thanks to recently discovered notebooks, some of the Great Detective's most challenging cases can be revealed in The Curious Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in Japan. Holmes is secretly brought to Japan disguised as an explorer named Sigerson. His host in Japan, Doctor Junichi Watanabe, helps Holmes unravel a series of perplexing cases. How can the sound of an obscure Japanese garden instrument help Holmes solve a case of madness and the voice of the Devil? Why would a thief risk capture to steal countless jars of pickles? Why would ghostly samurai appear to guard a waterfall? These and other puzzling mysteries challenge Holmes and Doctor Watanabe in The Curious Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in Japan. DALE FURUTANI is the first Asian-American to win major mystery writing awards and his books have appeared on numerous bestseller lists. He has spoken at the US Library of Congress, the Japanese-American National Museum, The Pacific Asia Museum, and numerous conferences. The City of Los Angeles named him as one of its "Forty Faces of Diversity" and Publisher?s Weekly called him ?a master craftsman.? He has lived in Japan and traveled there extensively. He now lives with his wife in the Pacific Northwest.

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SHAKEN: Stories for Japan

Description

One hundred percent of the royalties from this new collection of original stories will go directly to the 2011 JAPAN RELIEF FUND administered by the Japan America Society of Southern California. The 2011 Japan Relief Fund was created on March 11, 2011 to aid victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting tsunami waves. With the funds that have been raised so far, $750,000 has been committed to nonprofit organizations that are on the front lines of relief and recovery work in northeastern Japan.

This collection was born out of the writers' concern for the people in the disaster zone. SHAKEN: STORIES FOR JAPAN is an attempt by writers to pool their talents to help people in need, as musicians and actors so often do.

The book contains original stories by Brett Battles, Cara Black, Vicki Doudera, Dianne Emley, Dale Furutani, Timothy Hallinan, Stefan Hammond, Rosemary Harris, Naomi Hirahara, Wendy Hornsby, Ken Kuhlken, Debbi Mack, Adrian McKinty, I.J. Parker, Gary Phillips, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Jeffrey Siger, Kelli Stanley, C.J. West, and Jeri Westerson. As a group, these authors have won every mystery award there is and sold hundreds of thousand of copies. They're all working at the top of their games in this volume. SHAKEN; STORIES FROM JAPAN is art for heart's sake, and the purchase price will help those who are struggling to repair, or at least soothe, these terrible losses.

Not all the stories are mysteries; the consensus was simply that all writers should submit something that touches on Japan. Linking the stories are haiku by the 17th-century master Basho, translated by Jane Reichhold, and Issa, translated by David Lanoue. Both translators donated their work, as did the cover designer, writer Gar Anthony Haywood, and the e-book producer, Kimberly Hitchens.


PRAISE FOR THE AUTHORS

“Kelli Stanley has her eye on greatness.” –George Pelecanos
Wendy Hornsby's “stories are edgy, menacing, and masterful.” –Booklist
Dianne Emley's books are “Intense and hard-edged… First-rate.” –Tess Gerritsen
"[Naomi Hirahara] is truly one of a kind." –Chicago Sun-Times
“[Brett] Battles is a master storyteller.” –Sheldon Siegel
I. J. Parker's books are “terrifically imaginative work” –Wall Street Journal
Ken Kuhlken's writing is "Elegant . . . haunting, and beautiful." –Don Winslow.
Jeffrey Siger's work “Brilliantly explores a fascinating culture” –Leighton Gage
“Hank Phillippi Ryan understands plotting and she writes beautifully.” –Robert B. Parker
Adrian McKinty is “One of his generation's leading talents" –Publishers Weekly.
Jeri Westerson's work is "creative and enthralling..." –John Lescroart
“Gary Phillips writes tough and gritty parables.” –Michael Connelly
Vicki “Doudera expertly weaves a tale of suspense.” –Tess Gerritsen
Rosemary Harris is “Hilarious” (Kirkus Reviews), “A rising star” –Crimespree Magazine
Timothy Hallinan's writing is “razor-sharp, convincing, and heartbreaking.” –Gregg Hurwitz
C.J. West's work is "Powerful, thought provoking and massively entertaining.” –Crimesquad.com
Cara Black's Aimee Leduc novels are an “irresistible series set in Paris.” –New York Times
“Debbi Mack has carved her own niche in the mystery pantheon." –Scott Nicholson
[Dale]”Furutani manages a fluid mix of cultural history and swashbuckling adventure.” –Publishers Weekly
Stefan Hammond created the "Essential guide to Hong Kong's mind-bending films." –Entertainment Weekly

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Death in Little Tokyo (A Ken Tanaka Mystery)

Description

It's Ken Tanak's turn to stage a mock mysery for the Los Angeles Mystery Club and he's determined to do it right. Tanaka sets himself up as a fake P.I., office and all, only to have a femme fatale straight out of the movies try to hire him. Taking the case on a whim, Ken's detecting leads him to a mutilated corpse in a Little Tokyo hotel room.

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Ken Tanaka isn't a real P.I., but when he poses as one for his weekend mystery club--printing up phony business cards, renting a storefront office, buying a trench coat and fedora--he gets some real business in the form of Rita Newly, who offers him $500 to help extricate her from a blackmail scheme. Unemployed and with too much time on his hands, Ken can't resist the prospect of adventure or cash. He takes the case, only to find himself the prime suspect when a member of the Japanese mafia turns up dead and in several pieces. To exonerate himself, Ken must find the real killer, and his inexpert gumshoeing tangles him in a complicated plot involving strippers, gangsters, and the World War II-era Japanese "relocation" camps.

The Anthony Award-winning Death in Little Tokyo introduces "the very first Japanese-American amateur sleuth mystery series written by a Japanese-American." Ken Tanaka is a welcome addition; he's likable, charming, nerdish, and unfailingly polite around old people and the police. He has a gently self-effacing sense of humor and a girlfriend, Mariko, who is an actress struggling against the lack of parts for Asian Americans. Set in Los Angeles's Little Tokyo, the mystery unfolds around interesting little lessons on subjects as wide-ranging as woodblock prints, Latino culture, the game of Go, Japanese American history and social ritual, and the intricacies of plotting a mystery weekend. The city and neighborhood are evoked in especially vivid detail; food, in particular, is lovingly described. This is the commendable debut of a refreshing, somewhat less-than-gritty new voice. --R. Ellis

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