A riveting historical mystery set amid the exquisite ritual and refined treachery of eleventh-century Japan.
Sugawara Akitada is the son of impoverished nobility toiling at a low-level job in the Ministry of Justice. When an old friend, Professor Hirata, asks him to investigate a colleague’s blackmail, Akitada takes leave of his stultifying job for a temporary post at the Imperial University. There he finds gossip and rivalry abounding. A young girl is murdered. An old man mysteriously vanishes, and the Emperor declares it a miracle. Plunging into a labyrinth of conspiracy among the court’s most esteemed nobles, Akitada must step carefully while gathering clues to the puzzle before him.
A fascinating investigative procedural . . . goes down as smooth as a cup of sake with an appropriately powerful kick in the end.”–San Francisco Chronicle
I. J. Parker is the author of the Akitada mystery series. Her short stories featuring Akitada have been published regularly in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.
