It's also the setting for this series of four novels by Laura Joh Rowland featuring Sano Ichiro, the most honorable investigator to the shogun.

When the shogun's favorite concubine is found poisoned, the discovery interrupts Sano's wedding feast as well as unleash a host of concerns. Was the killing an attempt to keep the shogun from begetting an heir? Will someone use the crime as a pretext for getting a rival out of the way?

Sano has good reason to be doubly concerned about the case: failure to find the culprit could mean a visit to the execution ground for himself, his assistant and his family.

Sano is also distracted by his bride, who is as spirited and unconventional as a 17th-century Katharine Hepburn. Their journey toward accommodation and compromise form a major part of the book.

One word of warning: many forms of copulation show up in "The Concubine's Tattoo," and its explicitness may prove unsettling to regular readers of the genre.


Rich and Textured   May 22, 2000
 13 out of 15 found this review helpful

The Concubine's Tattoo offers everything that I need in a mystery. It is set in an exotic, fascinating era, 17th century Japan. It has an engaging mystery, about the death of one of Shoguns concubines, Harume while she is illicitly tattooing her lovers' name in a secret place and there are many possible suspects. The main characters in the story are interesting and sympathetic people. She opens the story at the lead character, Sano Ichiro's arranged wedding to Reiko, a Japanese woman with a mind of her own. The untimely death of Harume interrupts the wedding festivities and immediately set Sano and Reiko in conflict because of their different ideas of were a woman' s place is.

There are many great subplots woven throughout the story and Rowland has managed to make Ichiro's enemy, Chamberlain Yanagisawa, a richly drawn and sympathetic character without losing his menace. Actually all of the important secondary characters are given a nice depth, as well as the main characters.

This was the fourth book in a Series of books about San Ichiro's work as the Shoguns investigator and the first that I have read. I am not a regular mystery reader, the plots are usually a bit to predictable for me and I do not like the genre enough to put up with shoddy writing. This book however, and I hope the series, was engaging on several different levels. While it is a stand-alone book it definitely peaked my interest in finding and reading all of the books in this series. This is an author that I look forward to enjoying for years to come.


Ms. Rowlands best so far.   January 12, 2000
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Having read her entire Sano series to date, this one out does them all. More personality, and the suspense builds nicely to the end. Rieko is a great character addition to investigators team. The author could plan and plant the clues for the reader a little better but great reading over all.


Historical mystery fans will shout "Banzai" to a great tale   December 12, 1998
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

In 1690 Edo, Japan, Sano Inchiro, the Most Honorable Investigator, looks forward to marrying his beloved Lady Ueda Reiko. However, Sano's nuptial bliss is abruptly interrupted when Harume, a favorite concubine of Shogun Tsunayoshi, is murdered by an assailant who placed poison in the lady's tattoo ink. In his twenty months on the job, Sano has investigated several murders including a Dutch trader in Nagasaki. However, as dangerous as some of them were, Sano realizes that he begins his most perilous case because failure to solve this case would mean dishonoring the Shogun and potentially lead to Sano's death. Making maters more difficult for the Most Honorable Investigator is his new wife refuses to stay at home. Instead she begins her own brand of sleuthing.

With her fourth Sano novel, THE CONCUBINE'S TATTOO, Laura Joh Rowland continues her rapid climb to the top of the historical mystery sub-genre. The story line is filled with intriguing detail into Japanese history and culture without slowing down the who-done-it, which is intimately tied to the culture. In previous tales (see THE WAY OF THE TRAITOR, BUNDORI, and SHINJU) Sano has been a fully developed protagonist. However Reiko adds much personal depth to her spouse's character, turning him into a warmer sleuth. Fans of historical mysteries will shout "Banzai" after reading this deftly developed novel.


Tedious   July 20, 2001
 5 out of 9 found this review helpful

I picked up this book because it promised to be a cunning whodunit set against the exotic backdrop of medieval Japan. Sadly, it is neither. The novel reads like a children's book (albeit a perverse one), with cardboard cutout characters and jaded plot devices instead of the "superb mystery" laid out in a "richly crafted novel" I had hoped for. Worse, it is about as evocative of medieval Japan as a Holstein is of Secretariat. Yes, there are lots of italicized Japanese words for things and a great many unfamiliar names, but replace the horses with cars and "Sano" and "Reiko" with "Sam" and "Rita", and I defy you to to prove to me the novel isn't set in Chicago. All right, I exaggerate, but if a little hyperbole keeps you from spending your money on this book, it's all to the good. If you want to read some really absorbing historical fiction, try Michener. If you want a good mystery, check out Raymond Chandler. There are so many good authors out there; don't waste valuable reading time on this tedious book.