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Title: The Way of the Traitor by Laura Joh Rowland ISBN: 0-06-101090-1 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 04 September, 2001 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.45 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Way of the Writer
Comment: Laura Joh Rowland has me hooked on 17th century detective, Sano Ichiro. While telling an intricate tale of murder, treason and political intrigue, she has deviously educated me in the ways of feudal Japan. The rich tapastry she lays out will keep your mind awashed in a temporal painting of your mind. This book is a page turner. I literally could not put it down. I had to know what would happen in the next paragraph, the next page, the next chapter . . . and now that I've finished, the next book. I'm truly sorry I did not become aquanted with Sano Ichiro earlier but I plan on picking up the previous two books in the series Shinju and Bundori. GREAT READING!
Rating: 4
Summary: East Meets West...Unwillingly
Comment: This novel picks up where Rowland's last Sano Ichiro novel left off: once again, Sano is the victor in the battle against crime, but loser of the war that rages within the Shogun's household. And, once again, his enemy is the Shogun's favorite, Yanagisawa. Sano finds himself essentially exiled to Nagasaki, the only port in which Japan allows foreigners -- closely watched, of course. A Dutch trader is murdered, and Sano offers to unearth the murderer, a seemingly impossible, and politically suicidal, task. Will Sano persevere? Since this is a series of novels, it's pretty obvious he will solve the case. However, I don't think I can take much more of Sano and his associates constantly beaten, wounded, and almost assassinated! The most interesting part of the book, in my opinion, is the picture of foreigners Rowland paints in the book: they are, to Sano and other Japanese, dirty, smelly, and almost completely uncivilized. The fact that Sano needs one of the Dutch delegation's help challenges his detective and physical senses to the extreme. Rowland is historically accurate in her depiction of the xenophobia present in Japan, and the fears that foreigners will somehow pollute the purity of Japanese culture, something that James Clavell did so well in 'Shogun'.
Rating: 2
Summary: Sheer melodrama, lacks power of others in series
Comment: I was very impressed by Rowland's work after reading The Concubine's Tattoo. I felt she had a real knack for drawing complex characters with believable motivations. I was completely drawn into the world she portrays, and I found Sano an interesting character with some very believable problems. My one criticism of the novel was its melodramatic ending. Then I read Shinju and had much the same reaction.
But The Way of the Traitor is melodrama through and through, unredeemed by any of the depth of feeling that marks the others. The author's attempts to flesh out her characters by the use of flashbacks to their earlier lives fails badly, and the plot is like something out of Enid Blyton, with mysterious lights and smuggler's coves. By the time I got to the last couple of chapters I no longer cared about any of it, least of all who the guilty parties were.
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Title: Shinju by Laura Joh Rowland ISBN: 0061009504 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 01 March, 1996 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Samurai's Wife by Laura Joh Rowland ISBN: 0312974485 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Concubine's Tattoo by Laura Joh Rowland ISBN: 0312969228 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: April, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria by Laura Joh Rowland ISBN: 0312983786 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 14 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Black Lotus by Laura Joh Rowland ISBN: 0312979584 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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