Customer Rating:  
Summary: Reinvigorates the series
Comment: I was worried after the last novel that Sano Ichiro was done for. This novel, with its varied perspectives on the murder make it a true who-done-it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Status quo
Comment: If you like the Sano Ichiro series, as I do, you will like this book. It keeps to the storyline of her previous books. Holds your interest. Written in the same style I have become accustomed to. Not her greatest work but a good read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I was sorry this book wasn't better
Comment: I like a good mystery. The cover information for this book made it seem like this would be an author I might want to follow. Unfortunately I will not be reading another one of Ichiro's novels. The characterization was superficial. No one engaged me. Lady Mori was particularly unbelievable. It seemed at first that she might be a strong female character who could hold some real reader interest. However, Ichiro has Lady Mori waffling back and forth and back and forth about what she knows about her own actions and this ultimately spoiled any positive feeling I had about her. In addition, her ventures into mysticism, as a woman, give her no resolution, while Hirata's, as a man (after almost as much waffling) is a turning point in the novel. Very irritating. I was very disappointed in this book and sorry not to find a new author to read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Kabuki Theater Meets Madame Butterfly Melodrama
Comment: Reader, be prepared to be jerked around by the writer. This is the first (and will be the last) book in the series I've read. I like thrillers with exotic (for me) settings, but this one was way over the top. There were unfortunate lapses into contemporary English vernacular (like "Hey!" coming from one of Sano's subordinates). Stage machinery was way too evident, and the "acting" by the principles, by Lady Mori and her servant, was overwrought and operatic. Perhaps, as other reviewers have noted, the writer was forced into getting the book to the publisher before it was ready. (I'm surprised she even found a publisher.)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent - as usual
Comment: This book keeps up the tradition that Rowland has established in her previous books - an interesting mystery with a number of twists and turns - AND an excellent historical perspective [the women are a bit more bold than reality might have made possible - but it's encouraging to think that some women managed to assert their "independence"]. I'd recommend it!
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