Black Lotus

Starred review from April 1, 2001
The complexities of Buddhist temple society challenge detective Sano Ichiro and his wife and helpmate, Reiko, in the latest installment in Rowland's (The Samurai's Wife) outstanding series set in Shogun-era Japan. In this round Sano has to look into a case of murder and arson in the Black Lotus temple, the home of a mysterious sect and its charismatic leader. Suspicion has fallen on a teenage girl, but while Sano and Reiko find it difficult to penetrate the cult's respectable front, Sano sees nothing untoward in the sect, and he distrusts the 15-year-old's account of the tragedy. Reiko, however, sees a frightened and battered victim, and is willing to disobey and publicly contradict Sano in order to prove the girl's innocence and bring the sect's abuses to light. As Sano and Reiko take different paths in investigating the crime, their intractable passion for the truth threatens the fabric of their marriage. Indeed, the sect seems to inspire intense partisanship everywhere: it has generated much ill will among relatives of its members as well as the townsfolk, yet it has managed to garner the support of some of the highest officials of the Shogun's court. The question of religious cults and the abuse of their influence gives this story contemporary resonance. Well-developed characters, a complex, absorbing plot and rich historical detail should help win the author, the daughter of Chinese and Korean immigrants, many new readers as well as a place on mystery bestseller lists. An attractive Japanese-print dust jacket is a plus.

March 1, 2001
Sano, investigator for 17th-century Japanese shogun Tokugawa, and wife Reiko attempt to defend a female orphan accused of murder and arson. Their interrogations reveal plenty of suspects Buddhist nuns, priests, and doctors with criminal records, axes to grind, and political plots to carry out but the orphan's lies and pressure from the court threaten to make her a convenient, if innocent, sacrifice. The strains of juggling protocol and reining in his wife, meanwhile, nearly destroy Sano's marriage. In her sixth installment, author Rowland skillfully depicts the intricate interplay of social classes and the details of daily life, as well as the whims of the powerful, in medieval Japan. Highly recommended.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2001
The sixth novel featuring Japanese detective Sano Ichiro is a sharp, well-constructed mystery about a religious sect whose members are disappearing. When someone sets fire to a cottage near the Black Lotus temple, Sano is charged with finding the arsonist and solving the mystery of the disappearances. Rowland's unusual premise--setting a mystery series in seventeenth-century Japan, the time of samurai and shoguns--has evolved, over six installments, into a superb conceit. She brings this intriguing feudal society to life so completely (and so apparently effortlessly) that, by midway in the first chapter, we've already forgotten we're reading a period novel. Like the big, sprawling novels of James Clavell, the Sano Ichiro mysteries are full of captivating detail, with lively characters and solid stories. Sano himself is a great character, a film-noir detective transported to feudal Japan, as real as any contemporary crime solver. For Rowland's fans, and for those who relish vivid historical settings, this is a must-read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)