THE PILLOW BOOK OF LADY WISTERIA

Samurai Sano Ichiro, the shogun’s Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations and People, and his wife, Reiko, are recovering from the spiritual and emotional malaise of their last case (Black Lotus, 2001) when the shogun’s heir apparent, Honorable Lord Matsudaira

Mitsuyoshi, is found dead in an upscale brothel, stabbed through the eye with a hairpin. Everyone who seeks to ingratiate himself with the shogun—that is, everyone in 17th-century Japan—wants to find or frame the murderer, including police Commissioner Hoshida, lover of Chamberlain Yanagisawa, the second-highest shogunate official and Sano’s enemy. Hoshida interferes with Sano’s investigation and accuses him of a cover-up when Sano remains the only one not jumping to a convenient solution. Evidence, manufactured and real, points to a conflicting array of suspects. Lady Wisteria, the courtesan with whom Mitsuyoshi spent the night, has disappeared from the gated “pleasure quarter,” but sections of the journal called her “pillow book” keep turning up. A high-ranking court official’s summary execution doesn’t prevent a musician who loved Wisteria and a chaperone who hated her from arrest. Under tremendous pressure, Sano asks help of Reiko, who distrusts a surprising overture from awkward Lady Yanagisawa, but distrusts her distrust as well. To solve the crime, Reiko and Sano must sort out the facts from lies and personal feelings.

Rowland, whose historical backgrounds always flavor Sano’s adventures, offers this time a double helping of exotic sexual practices. Readers will have to decide whether such salacious details spice or undercut Sano’s struggle to remain honorable in a dishonorable world.