Fires of Edo

January 31, 2022
Is arson responsible for multiple fatal fires in 16th-century Edo, Japan? Unlikely investigative partners Hiro Hattori, a ronin ninja, and Fr. Mateo, the Portuguese Jesuit he’s vowed to protect, must tackle that question in their entertaining eighth outing (after 2019’s Ghost of the Bamboo Road). They have travelled to Edo to tell members of Hiro’s ninja clan, Iga ryu, that they have been marked for death by warlord Oda Nobunaga, whose plans to rule as shogun are opposed by the Iga ryu. Oda has learned the names of its members, but before the clan members can be warned, Hiro and Mateo witness a fire destroy a bookbinder’s store, a calamity that takes on new weight when a charred corpse is found in the ruins with its limbs severed and throat slit. The prospect that the dead man was Iga ryu, among other factors, increases the pressure on the investigators to find the truth. Spann offers plenty of plausible twists while incorporating period details seamlessly. Fans of Laura Joh Rowland’s Sano Ichiro novels will be pleased. Agent: Sandra Bond, Bond Literary.

March 25, 2022
In the castle town of Edo in sixteenth-century Japan, a samurai is found dead in the ruins of a burned-out building. Murder or misadventure? Master ninja Hiro Hattori and his sidekick, the Jesuit Father Matteo, must determine whether the building's owner is a victim of arson or a very clever killer. Could something from Hiro's own past be connected to these events? This is the eighth in the consistently strong Hiro Hattori series, which began in 2013 with Claws of the Cat. Spann isn't a professional historian, but you'd never know it from her books: she writes with a sure hand, setting her stories against a real-world backdrop that feels genuine to a modern audience; on the other hand, she never overwhelms the reader with excessive detail. Fans of mysteries set in feudal Japan (Laura Joh Rowland's Sano Ichiro series, for example) are certain to enjoy this book and will likely want to catch up on Hiro Hattori's previous adventures.

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