The Incense Game
A Novel of Feudal Japan
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4.4 • 21 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
In The Incense Game, Laura Joh Rowland's powerful and evocative thriller, Sano Ichiro and his wife strive to solve the case in a world that is crumbling around them.
An RT Book Review Magazine Reviewers' Choice Award Winner
In the wake of a terrifying earthquake, Sano races to solve a crime that could bring down the shogun's regime
Japan, 1703. A devastating earthquake has left the city of Edo in shambles—even the shogun's carefully regulated court is teetering on the brink of chaos. This is no time for a murder investigation. But when Sano discovers the bodies of two young sisters buried beneath the rubble, he suspects that incense poisoning, not the earthquake, killed them. Worse yet, their father, a powerful nobleman, threatens to topple the vulnerable regime unless Sano agrees to track down his daughters' killer.
With the help of his wife, Reiko, and his chief retainer, Hirata, Sano begins a secret investigation that jeopardizes his whole family. And with Hirata mysteriously neglecting his duties and an old foe plotting to overthrow Sano and the shogun himself, the shockwaves from the earthquake are only the beginning.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A natural disaster serves as the focal point for Rowland's stellar 16th whodunit set in feudal Japan (after 2011's The Ronin's Mistress). In 1703, an earthquake devastates the city of Edo, claiming thousands of lives and causing major structural damage. Recovery efforts yield the bodies of two sisters and another woman, who perished playing the incense game, in which participants "burned incense samples, smelled the smoke, and attempted to guess what type they were." Evidence that the incense was poisoned leads Lord Hosokawa, the powerful father of the two sisters, to blackmail Sano Ichiro, chamberlain to the shogun, into finding his daughters' killer. Should Sano fail to do so, Hosokawa will ally himself with the nobles looking to topple the shogun, taking advantage of the rampant weaknesses of the regime, which the earthquake exacerbated. Once again, Rowland sets the bar high for her hero, who must navigate treacherous political shoals as well as deduce the killer's identity.
