The Way of the Traitor

By Laura Joh Rowland
I devoured this in a few hours while waiting for a badly-delayed airplane. It’s a quick read, with loads of interesting details. I have read several other books in this series about Sano Ichiro, the Shogun’s Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People, and really enjoyed them. They’re not terribly deep, and they tend toward the melodramatic, but come on! It’s a murder mystery, people!
This one starts when Sano is sent off to the port city of Nagasaki by an enemy in the Shogun’s court. He finds himself caught up in the dangerous political minefield of Dutch trading with Japan when a Dutch trader goes missing and then turns up dead. Loads of intrigue, excitement, and politics. Good times.
Book 20 in 2007.