DEATH OF A DAIMYO

In this disappointing new adventure for Japan's Superintendent Otani (The Ninth Netsuke), he and wife Hanae visit their daughter and son-in-law in London, attending an official hands-across-the-sea function at Cambridge--while Jiro Kimura and street-smart Noguchi cover things back in Kobe. Their primary concern? The possibility of gang warfare in the aftermath of the death of underworld super-boss Yamamoto--whose secret partner/heir, Shigeru Murakami (public philanthropist, illicit entrepreneur), just happens to be a guest at those same British festivities with the Otanis. Then Murakami is found stabbed to death in Cambridge--so, while Kimura uses an undercover policewoman to infiltrate a gangland party and pinpoint the evil mastermind, Otani helps Scotland Yard to nail the actual killer. Despite Otani's mildly entertaining reactions to life outside Japan: a dispirited addition to the series--with disjointed, flabby plotting and ho-hum villains.