The Shogun's Daughter, Laura Joh Rowland's 17th installment in the Sano Ichiro mystery series, opens in a city darkened by the grim, residual air of recent death. It is 1704, and Edo (modern-day Tokyo) has been devastated by an earthquake, with thousands dead. Amid the ruins, the shogun's only daughter falls victim to smallpox. As she takes her last, rattling breaths, her family braces themselves for a struggle between the shogun's two remaining heirs. Only the shogun can choose his successor, but those who qualify will conspire ruthlessly to win his favor and be named the next ruler of Japan.
At the heart of Rowland's series is the samurai Sano, a classic hero who embodies the ideals of his rank and tradition. Sano's sworn enemy, the chamberlain Yanagisawa, is the shogun's favorite adviser. After visiting an astrologer, Yanagisawa makes the convenient discovery that his illegitimate son is the son of the shogun. (Rowland has researched Japanese history deeply and prefaces the novel with a historical note explaining the possibility of Yanagisawa's scheme.)
That the shogun notoriously prefers men is one of many reasons Sano doubts the claim. As his investigations progress, Sano begins to question the true cause of the Shogun's daughter's death. While political enemies are obvious suspects, even supernatural forces are rumored to be at play in the struggle for power. Unraveling an intricate plot against the backdrop of a lost and richly beautiful Japan, The Shogun's Daughter injects the murder mystery with glamour. --Annie Atherton