Meanwhile, Lord Matsumae of the northern province of Ezogashima has not appeared for his obligatory visit to the shogun, and Sano’s bitter rival Lord Matsudaira has persuaded the shogun to send Sano to Ezogashima to find out what has detained the missing official.

Sano, resentful of Matsudaira’s manipulation of the shogun, nevertheless must dutifully obey and make the journey to the isolated and primitive Ezogashima; at the same time, though, Sano realizes that Matsudaira may have been involved in Masahiro’s disappearance, and – because of Matsudaira’s diabolical scheming – all evidence suggests that Masahiro may be in Ezogashima.

And so Sano and Reiko – along with several loyal friends and colleagues – make the voyage to Ezogashima, officially to confront Lord Matsumae but more urgently to find the missing Masahiro. When they arrive in Ezogashima’s Fukuyama City at the end of a harrowing, death-defying journey, they soon find themselves enmeshed in a bewildering environment that is beset by what seems to be madness, duplicity, dangerous secrets, hostile rivalries, supernatural possession, and murder.

In fact, Lord Matsumae is deranged by grief at the loss of his lover Tekare (pejoratively known to some as The Snow Empress, a complicated woman who had mystical and questionable powers), and he quickly gains the upper hand over Sano, Reiko, and their companions. Now, to save everyone’s life – including his own, his wife’s, and his son’s – the great detective Sano must find out who was responsible for Tekare’s bizarre death.

Sano is not alone in this challenge, though, because Reiko has considerable skills and experience as a detective who had helped Sano in the past; Reiko has a special ‘ability to get close to the women‘ who might know something about the death of Tekare and the disappearance of Masahiro ‘and elicit the most private facts from them.‘

But Sano and Reiko may finally be confronting insurmountable odds, and they must quickly find out what happened to The Snow Empress if they ever hope to see their son alive again.

Consistently fascinating and seductive, The Snow Empress is another top-notch mystery from Laura Joh Rowland. Rich in historical and cultural details, the intricately designed plot and compelling characterizations will entertain readers who enjoy unusual murder mysteries with exotic settings and provocative premises.

The chief investigator, the Shogun’s sosakan-sama, rather than arresting and confining the esteemed Lady Reiko, takes her immediately to her husband. She tells her husband, when confronted by him, that she does not know what happened. She says she cannot – or perhaps will not – fully explain why she was at Lord Mori’s except to say that Lord Mori was ‘a terrible, evil man.‘ She cryptically insists, ‘I was looking for the boy. I was only trying to help.‘

Sano, an unorthodox but effective administrator, struggles to understand his wife’s involvement and her bewildering reticence. Moreover, making everything even more complicated for him, Sano knows that he has many political enemies and critics; having already survived four assassination attempts, Sano understands that those who wish to destroy him will do anything – even implicate his wife in a murder – in order to expedite his fall from power and prestige.

Some evidence that points to Reiko’s innocence is a blood-stained white chrysanthemum; moreover, beyond the bloodied chrysanthemum, Sano has little exculpatory evidence to work with, and he has begun to have his doubts about his wife’s story. However, reports soon begin to surface that Lord Mori may have had many boys delivered to his citadel, though reports also suggest that some of the boys were never seen again. Lord Mori’s wife, though, steadfastly implicates Lady Reiko even further by claiming she had been the murdered man’s mistress.

So, Sano knows that he must discover the truth about his wife and Lord Mori, and he knows that he must move quickly and carefully in a dangerous, feudal society in which suspicions, duplicity, corruption, and cruelty are widespread. Unless Sano can prove his wife’s innocence – which will be difficult if not impossible – both he and his wife will be executed as traitors.

In a densely detailed narrative – filled with different characters’ viewpoints and testimonies, much like Rashomon – Laura Joh Rowland has created a spellbinding, tightly structured, and beautiful portrayal of love and loyalty in the midst of murder and malice in 17th century Japan. Stylistically, because of the shifting points of view, this book may not be everyone’s cup of tea; the complications of the story can also become exacerbated by the intricacies of Japanese culture, and that may also overwhelm readers who lack patience and commitment to an excellent tale. Nevertheless, with compelling characterizations and a fascinating protagonist, Red Chrysanthemum will have you wholeheartedly agreeing with The Denver Post‘s book critic who said of another of Rowland’s novels, ‘Sano may carry a sword and wear a kimono, but you’ll immediately recognize him as an ancestor of Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade.‘

Clever, energetic, and sexy – which I noted in the previous review – the narrator Kitty Pangborn is the secretary to P.I. Dexter J. Theroux, a ‘tall and dreamy‘ sleuth in Los Angeles where Theroux’s usual clientele includes jealous wives, suspicious business partners, and stingy insurance companies. Now, though, in Death Was In The Picture, an enigmatic fellow with questionable motivation and background hires Theroux to keep an eye on movie star Laird Wyndham with hopes of making certain discoveries about Wyndham’s questionable morals.

Well, quicker than you can say Hollywood Boulevard, Theroux – with Kitty as his irrepressible assistant – finds out that Wyndham has wound up in jail on charges of having murdered a young starlet. One would think, therefore, that Theroux’s and Kitty’s job is done since Wyndham’s new role as accused murderer would certainly seem to add up to questionable morals.

In an abrupt change of direction, though, Wyndham and his intensely protective attorney hire Theroux (and, of course, Kitty is very much a part of the package). Their new job is simple: clear Wyndham by nailing the reprobate responsible for the murder. So, working with a clever plan, Kitty and Theroux go undercover at the MGM studios, learn some provocative bits of information about eccentric people, pressure those people to reveal some dirty little secrets, and – when all is more or less wrapped up in a tidy little package that includes something resembling a solution – what they are really left with when they finally close the case is the delicious irony of some rather shadowy ‘divine justice.‘

A good, old-fashioned gumshoe novel set in the early 1930s, Death Was In The Picture has it all: secrets, foul play, out-of-control passions, quirky characters, and – of course – several murders(?) thrown into the mix. The bottom line is this: Stylish and great fun, just like Richards’ earlier offering, Death Was In The Picture is first-rate entertainment, so don’t miss it.

When Rita Heppelwaite saunters into Theroux’s office, she hires the under-employed P.I. to investigate her boyfriend, the wealthy Harrison Dempsey. With only a few hours expended on the case, Dexter and Pangborn discover what seems to be Dempsey’s dead body (perfectly perforated with a well-placed bullet). However, when the police are later called upon to investigate, the dead body is nowhere to be found, and Theroux is in the awkward position of having to answer a whole lot of questions.

Then, when Lila Dempsey shows up at Theroux’s office and wants to hire him to find her missing husband – that same guy again, Harrison Dempsey – that is when things start to get more than a little confusing for Theroux and Katherine.

Meanwhile, Theroux’s good friend, the somewhat shadowy fellow known only asMustard, turns to Theroux and Katherine for their assistance with Brucie Jergens, a recently widowed woman who needs a place to hide from the person (or persons) responsible for her husband’s murder. And that is when things get really complicated and dangerous!

Well, quicker than you can say ‘move over Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe,‘ debut novelist Linda L. Richards (the editor and co-founder of January magazine) involves Theroux, Mustard, and especially Katherine Pangborn (as narrator and lead-character) in a top-notch hard-boiled whodunit that sizzles with suspense and surprises. Stylish and edgy, Death Was the Other Woman has everything an old-school mystery fanatic could want in a good, old-fashioned mystery: an intriguing plot with more twists and turns than a canyon road in the Hollywood Hills, a cast of quirky characters and a stunning new protagonist in Katherine Pangborn, fiendishly scintillating crimes with double-crossers who get double-crossed (and murdered), and tons of page-turner fun. The bottom line is this: Death Was the Other Woman is an absolute winner.

When Knights of the Cross ended, the narrator-protagonist Demetrios Askiates had barely survived during the Crusaders’ holy siege upon the apparently impregnable walls of Antioch. Although beset by famine, foul winter weather, and dissension among rival factions, the loyal legions of Christendom ultimately defeated the Turkish infidels and then remained poised for their next objective.

When the action of Siege of Heaven begins in 1098, the thousands of soldiers of the Army of God (and its bitterly divided components) remain stalled in Antioch. Making matters worse, the plague has been intensifying its ravages upon everyone in Antioch, and Demetrios would prefer to remain there to be with his beloved Anna, but the demands of duty will take him elsewhere.

First, the loyal Demetrious becomes involved in a harrowing quest for a religious relic – St. Paul’s hand – but soon he finds himself betrayed and nearly murdered; second, the fearless Demetrius travels with the emperor’s new envoy to Egypt where they discover the exotic land’s intriguing beauty and its blood-curdling dangers; third, when word spreads that one of the power-hungry Crusaders has seized Antioch as his own spoils of war, the Army of God finally overcomes inertia and begins the long, torturous move against the Crusaders’ ultimate goal: Jerusalem.

As portrayed in the final sections of Tom Harper’s exquisite historical novel, ‘the capture of Jerusalem by the First Crusade in 1099 stands as one of the great cataclysms of history. Through a potent combination of zealotry, pent-up frustration and greed, the crusaders massacred more or less every man, woman and child in the city, depopulating it for generations to come and leaving a legacy of hatred whose effects are still being felt today.‘

As a means of understanding the ways in which the past is so much more than mere prologue to the present and the future – and as a way of making the First Crusade come alive in all of its graphic horror – Siege of Heaven combines intrigue, savagery, and passion. Well-written, meticulously researched, exquisitely plotted, and overflowing with pulse-pounding action, Tom Harper’s Siege of Heaven is an exciting representation of the First Crusade’s lethal climax. This is historical fiction at its very best!

As a magistrate in Lottingen, Prussia, Stiffaniis and his family are struggling to survive amidst the grotesque miasma that overwhelms their city in 1808. Foul air, filth, and flies – all of which seem to have accompanied the French army when it invaded and occupied Prussia – combine to make day-to-day life unbearable. Stiffaniis is in the midst of prosecuting a case involving this stomach-churning pollution when he is ordered by the French commanding general to drop everything and travel to the Baltic coast where he is to investigate the murder of a young woman.

Forced by the French to leave his wife and children behind in unwholesome Lottingen, Stiffaniis grudgingly obeys the orders and travels alone to the scene of the crime where the woman had been unspeakably mutilated. The indefatigable sleuth realizes immediately that he has been thrust into a most difficult case. To Stiffaniis, it is almost as if his deceased mentor, Immanuel Kant, had reached out from beyond the grave and issued an insurmountable challenge.

Initially, the steadfastly sensible Stiffaniis believes that France’s depletion of a Prussian resource – amber – might be at the root of the woman’s mysterious death. Amber, after all, had been ‘the single item representing the wealth, the history and the culture of Prussia.‘ It was, indeed, ‘a gift from God.‘ Thus, it could not now be ‘any surprise that the French were interested‘ in stripping ‘the greatest gift of the Baltic‘ away from the Prussians. Applying the same methods of investigation that he had learned from Kant, Stiffaniis soon learns about the ruthless ‘greed and violence that {amber now} unleashes‘ upon people on the Baltic coast.

Then, when Stiffaniis least suspects it, even though the carnage and brutality continues to escalate all around him, the investigation becomes intensely personal. With tensions escalating between the French and the Prussians (and with Stiffaniis caught in the middle), and – more significantly – with his own family suddenly in danger, Stiffaniis discovers that he is up against an elusive and brilliant criminal. Trapped like the insects that had long ago been embedded forever in pieces of precious amber, Stiffaniis feels like he and his family may now be trapped within a diabolically irrational series of crimes from which there may be no escape.

Building upon the intricate plotting patterns and compelling characterizations established by the first two installments (Critique of Criminal Reason and Days of Atonement), this most recent historical mystery featuring the Prussian magistrate is sophisticated, thought provoking, and entertaining. A Visible Darkness, like its predecessors, is another powerful tale of 19th century murder and mayhem in which the philosophical realm of rationalism must contend with the irrational perversities of evil. Do yourself a favor: Read all three of these novels, and treat yourself to fascinating adventures in which the fictional origins of forensic criminology are on vivid display.

Summoned to the big city of Königsberg, Stiffeniis must investigate and solve a mysterious series of murders that have occurred at intervals during the past year. Apparently the work of a serial killer, the unsolved crimes will challenge Stiffeniis who feels honored to have been chosen as the investigator but remains puzzled as to why the king has assigned him to a task for which Stiffeniis himself knows that he is professionally unprepared.

Stiffeniis’s preliminary inquiries exacerbate his puzzlement, especially when he finds that a necromancer named Doctor Vigilantius has also been involved in the investigation. As a disciple of the spiritualist Emanuel Swedenborg, the doctor claims to have found useful clues by having communicated with the dead bodies of the murder victims. Stiffeniis rejects the doctor’s irrational and bizarre approach, but admits that he has very few clues of his own upon which to proceed rationally.

Then, however, Stiffeniis – paradoxically relieved but confused – discovers that his old acquaintance, the illustrious philosopher and internationally respected rationalist Immanuel Kant is, in fact, the person who has arranged for Stiffeniis’s assignment to the case. Following Kant’s sagacious guidance, Stiffeniis’s investigation is reenergized and redirected. Soon, he – with Kant as his mentor – is pursuing fresh leads and possibilities, avoiding red herrings and false confessions, and delving into ‘the darkest impulses of the human heart,‘ even as other people involved in the investigation are being murdered.

What Stiffeniis will learn, however, is something for which he does not believe he is cognitively and emotionally prepared even though his own shadowy and tortured past has unwittingly prepared him for what he is about to discover about crimes, criminals, and the human capacity for irrational cruelty. Now, Kant will lead him to understand the shocking and bewildering ways in which the series of murders have occurred. And the murderer’s identity and motives, when revealed, will nearly overwhelm Stiffeniis.

Written in engaging prose, Critique of Criminal Reason is a sophisticated, thought-provoking excursion into history and the fictional origins of forensic criminology. Enriched by period details and complex characterizations, Michael Gregorio’s tale of 19th century murder and mayhem takes readers into the philosophical realm of logic, rationalism, and the nature of evil. Erudite and challenging, Critique of Criminal Reasonis, in the final analysis, a superb mystery that is intricately plotted and filled with surprises. Saying it in a different way, Sherlock Holmes would have been quite proud of Hanno Stiffeniis!

Here are a few tidbits in the form of story previews that should further convince you that you ought to include Liars All on your must read list for this spring:

Nine months after the robbery and murder, Brodie Farrell – owner of Looking For Something, something like a lost and found private investigation business – is not bothered by business but is instead engaged in a life-or-death struggle on behalf of her sixteen-month-old son whose future is threatened by an inoperable brain tumor.

At the same time, Brodie’s business assistant, Daniel Hood, a principled man with complicated emotional ties to his boss, has been sought out by the mother of the convicted robber and murderer. The distraught mother wants Daniel to find the jewelry her son had stolen and fenced, and she wants that stolen jewelry returned to the woman who barely escaped being her son’s second murder victim. The mother’s motivations are seemingly simple: honesty and redemption on behalf of her unrepentant son.

Soon, however, Daniel finds himself in extreme danger, almost as if he is suddenly ‘in the middle of a Hitchcock film.‘ Someone either wants him off the lost and found case or wants him dead. Daniel recognizes that he is now involved in a ‘situation in which absolute honesty could get him killed.‘ But, as his ethical and emotional involvement in the case intensifies, he wryly observes that necessity ‘makes liars of us all.‘

And so, with plenty of action to keep it moving and with plenty of provocative themes to further strengthen a remarkable mystery novel, Liars All requires its characters (and its readers) to confront a couple of serious questions: What kinds of lies must never be told, even if honor, friendship, and love are at stake? On the other hand, what kinds of lies are absolutely permissible and necessary, all in the name of honor, friendship, and love?