The latest in the 'terrifically imaginative' (The Wall Street Journal) Akitada mystery series brings eleventh-century Japan to life
I. J. Parker's phenomenal Akitada mystery series has been gaining fans with each new novel. The latest, The Convict's Sword, is the most fully realized installment to date, weaving history, drama, mystery, romance, and adventure into a story of passion and redemption. Lord Sugawara Akitada, the senior secretary in the Ministry of Justice, must find the mysterious killer of a man condemned to live in exile for a crime he did not commit. Meanwhile, Akitada's retainer, Tora, investigates the sudden death of a blind street singer, whose past life is a bigger mystery than anyone thought. Told in Parker's clever, vivid prose, The Convict's Sword is a must-listen for those who love well-written mysteries in an exotic setting.
Akitada is on his way to the bedside of his dying mother when bad weather forces him to take refuge in a temple whose central treasure is a brilliantly painted hell screen. Perhaps its violent imagery influences his dreams: that night he is awakened by a terrible scream. It's only after Akitada returns to his family and a scene of domestic unhappiness and scandal that the significance of that cry becomes clear. For while he slept, a woman was murdered, and now he must find her killer, even if it means looking very close to home.
"Elegant and entertaining . . . Parker has created a wonderful protagonist in Akitada. . . . She puts us at ease in a Japan of one thousand years ago." -The Boston Globe
"Akitada is as rich a character as Robert Van Gulik's intriguing detective, Judge Dee."
-The Dallas Morning News
Sugawara Akitada must venture into the pit of hell on an island of the damned
When the exiled Prince Okisada, the most illustrious prisoner of the penal colony on Sado Island, is poisoned, Sugawara Akitada is called upon by the emperor's envoys to investigate incognito. The accused murderer is the son of the governor of the island, but Akitada suspects greater treachery. Posing as a prisoner, Akitada discovers a deadly conspiracy, only to fall into the hands of brutal guards and disappear. It falls to Tora, Akitada's devoted assistant, to begin his own dangerous search of the island for his lost friend and the truth.
"Parker has created a wonderful protagonist in Akitada." -The Boston Globe
"Deftly combines an action-packed plot with convincing period detail to bring eleventh-century Japan to life." -Publishers Weekly
With unblinking determination, Sugawara Akitada must confront an ancient evil in a frozen land
Unlocking the doors to power and influence in eleventh-century Japan comes naturally to one as cunning and curious as Sugawara Akitada. Now he travels north to assume the provisional governorship of Echigo, a remote and frigid province notorious for its hostility to outsiders. There, as the winter snows threaten to sever all ties to civilization, his tenuous authority and the very lives of his family are jeopardized by a rash of troubles, including a local uprising, a slew of brutal murders, and a secret as cruel as the northern winter . . . and a lot more treacherous.
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.
