However, my major gripes come with historical premise of the book which revealed the author's lack of understanding of Tokugawa politics which lead the story into the realm of historical fantasy instead of fiction. While not to nitpick but these are the list of some of the major errors:
1) The term "elder" was used to described a retired person
from active service, a honorifed title. I think the proper
term the author wanted to use was "Roju".
2) Just because you are the Shogun's favorite lover boy don't
make you his heir. In fact, in history, such lover boys are
automatically barred from such event.
3) Its sheer silliness to think that a non-Tokugawa like
Yanagisawa could even think that his boy could even be
considered to be the next Shogun.
4) Matsudaira was a name of junior branch of the Tokugawa
Clan. No Shogun, even one as befudded as the one in this
book would promote a member of a very junior branch to
such high position and risk the wrath of the three major
branches of the entire clan....Tokugawa of Owari, Mito and
Kii provinces. Not only that, no man would called the
Shogun "Honored Cousin" in front of everyone, even if that
Shogun was brain dead. Such informality simply don't exist
outside of total privacy between two men.
5) No one in his right mind, will risk destruction of his
house by open warfare. This is sheer fantasy on the
author's part. Doesn't anyone remembered the fate of the
"47 Ronins" story??
6) Finally, the author uses the words "Asakura Jinja Shrine"
couple of times in the book. In English, that would be
"Asakura Shrine Shrine" since the word "Jinja" means
shrine.
7) One last tidbit...in the beginning, the author uses the
words "Shogun" and "dictator" interchangably. A sign of
uneducated historian since an educated one knows of the
massive differences between the two.

But in the end, if you accepted the historical fantasy of the book, I thought it was a highly acceptable murder-mystery and despite of my feeling about the author's historical ability, I enjoyed her writing and I am encouraged to read other books of this series.


An Excellent Mystery   April 29, 2004
 13 out of 13 found this review helpful

This is a murder mystery set in 19th century Japan. I picked it up at the library solely because of the beautiful front cover. It was intriguing to read; containing all the qualities of an American mystery but filled with numerous interesting facts concerning the Japanese culture. I found myself learning as well as being entertained by the story. My only true disappointment was discovering, after I started reading, that this book is the 9th in a series. I'm positive that I would have enjoyed the storyline more if I had read the other 8 books as much of the character background left me confused. There were often remarks concerning events in the previous books, sure to make a less observant reader wonder if they had skipped some pages. However, I do intend to look for the previous books as I found the characters intriguing, the plot filled with twists and turns, and overall, the entire book was very enjoyable. Many times, I was fooled, thinking I had figured out the mystery until finally the truth was revealed in the end. One word of warning, there are several very graphic sexual scenes. I would not recommend this to a younger reader; definitely intended for the adult audience.


best book of the series so far   April 8, 2005
 9 out of 10 found this review helpful

Sano is back and he's got a particularly messy mystery on his hands. A high court official with an complex sexual past and a slew of enimies is dead. The old man was beaten to death and no-one, not his wife who was sleeping next door, his half witted concubine or his handsome houseguest will admit to knowing anything about it. Sano finds himself attempting to deal with the crime while carefully walking a thin line between two opposing factions and the weaked willed Shogun. If he finds the murderer it may ruin his career and life. If he doesn't the country may be plunged into a war. Only his samuarai code can offer him any comfort.

Sano's wife Reiko is also back and her character is much improved. She's no longer the annoying brat that she used to be and has become a real help to her husband's work rather than the added headache she once was.

Other reviewers have mentioned the sex in this novel. It is very graphic and on occasion, revolting. If that bothers you, be prepared to either skip whole sections or skip the book. This is not a Harlequinn romance and it isn't Nancy Drew or a cozy Agatha Christie.

One thing that Rowland does very well is to get into the heads of widely different characters. The villainess does terrible things but is really a victim herself. The villain is a fascinating, twisted character who does disgusting and vicious things and almost convinces himself and the reader that he has no other choice. And of course, Sano and Reiko's relationship continues to be interesting.

I don't know if I'll continue with this series but this was a pretty good mystery and it has a totally unexpected ending.


another "unputdownable" installment   March 23, 2004
 8 out of 10 found this review helpful

It's November of 1694, and Japan is bracing itself for a civil war as the opposing factions headed by wily and corrupt Chamberlain Yanagisawa and Lord Matsudaira (the weak shogun's cousin) struggle for power and control. Both men are busy marshaling their forces and rallying their allies. And each man wants Sano Ichiro, the shogun's most honourable investigator, on his side. But Sano is loath to choose a side even though he realizes that he may end up being friendless and without high ranking friends at a very dangerous time by remaining neutral. And then a very strange thing happens. And old enemy of Sano's and ally of Chamberlain Yanagisawa, Senior Elder Makino, dies. But he leaves a letter for Sano, asking that Sano investigate his death just in case he died because he was assassinated. Honour bound, Sano has no choice but to investigate, and quickly comes to the conclusion that Makino died under suspicious circumstances. Was Makino murdered because of personal reasons, or was his a political murder? The suspects number not only Makino's wife and concubine, but also Chamberlain Yanagisawa and Lord Matsudaira. And even before Sano can begin his investigation, everything becomes twice as complicated when both Yanagisawa and Matsudaira try to implicate the other in the murder, and to menace Sano into carrying out the investigation to their own particular satisfaction. With the stakes so high and the lives of his family at stake, Sano, together with his wife, Reiko (who is still recovering from her horrific experience chronicled in "The Dragon King's Palace"), and his henchman, Hirata, will have to be more canny and resolute than ever as they follow every elusive clue in order to discover who murdered Makino and why, and hopefully, keep their heads in such a precarious and dangerous time...

Once again, I found myself glued to the seat, unable to put down this latest Sano Ichiro mystery installment until I had reached the last page. While the mystery was not a very perplexing one, the book still proved to be an engrossing and compelling read. The events unfolded at a swift and almost breath-neck speed, and with each new development, the tension grew. As usual, the character portrayals were vivid and believable, as was the descriptions of Edo, and the historical goings-on of the period. I thoroughly enjoyed "The Perfumed Sleeve" from beginning to end, and count it as a worthy installment in a simply brilliant historical mystery series. Indeed, I count Laura Joh Rowland's Sano Ichiro mystery novels as one of my top five favourite historical mystery series to be written by an American authour.


Wrong genre.....   August 3, 2004
 7 out of 23 found this review helpful

I've followed the series, finding that Ms. Rowland's characters interest me. Hitherto, her sexual situation depictions have not been so far into gratuity that we couldn't either ignore them, or claim they worked somewhat within the plot, but in this book, we are served an entirely new level of graphicly lurid sex that might well qualify this book as pornographic. She's certainly using this book as a vehicle to explore presenting explicit and detailed accounts of sexual behaviour,(bordering on and crossing over into perverse), including an account of an incident where Reiko,(our heroine, disguised as a maid), is forced to voyeurism of sex that includes insertion of a hard-boiled egg into a woman's genitalia.
While I am not a proponant of censorship- I think you can read whatever you want- I DO think that some note as to graphic content of this kind should be made by the pro reviewers and Amazon's commentary, and I think that Ms. Rowland might do better to decide just what she's offering us here. Is she a mystery writer? Or a purveyor of erotica? This book might best be classified as the latter......
As for the rest of the book, the plot itself is again, of interest,her details are beautifully written and rather prosaic, her characters are fun,(although the mimmering,insipid,melodramatic women sometimes become irritating), but once again,Ms.Rowland indulges in the tiresome device of constant "questionmark endings". Could she have--? Will he find--? Will our hero--? Chapter after chapter, this becomes a bit on the insulting side, and I found myself cringing each time, thinking "how trite, there's a better way."
It's likely that I'll keep buying the series, because I'm a compulsive character follower and enjoy period fiction,(REALLY fiction-this book isn't particularly accurate about Japanese culture, but then, Ms. Rowland isn't Japanese...),like to see how they turn out, but I'm certainly hoping that Ms. Rowland realizes that erotica doesn't excuse a sophomoric writing style and is not a substutute for scenario developement. It's just rather cheap book thickener and I found myself wondering if I wasn't being forced, along with Reiko, into voyeurism, as I kept reading in an effort to not miss something pertinant to the mystery. She might actually consider studying up on period Japanese history between books.......
Will Ms. Rowland continue to escalate her level of graphic erotica? Will she learn that plot complexity and technical accuracy are far more interesting to mystery readers than sexual disgust? Will she ever figure out how to avoid the chronic question mark? Will Amazon identify the sexually explicit books a bit better in future?
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