I.J. Parker

Author Information
I.J. Parker's Latest Book

Newest Release

  • Bibliography:
    33 Books (2 Series)
  • First Book:
    July 2002
  • Latest Book:
    September 2023
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Full Series List in Order

Akitada Stories

1 - Fox Magic (Sep-2011)
2 - The Water Sprite (Sep-2011)
3 - The Curio Dealer's Wife (Nov-2011)
4 - Akitada's First Case (Nov-2011)
5 - Akitada and the Way of Justice (Nov-2011)
6 - Three Tales of Love and Murder (Feb-2012)
7 - Akitada's Holiday (May-2012)
8 - The Kamo Horse (Aug-2012)

Sugawara Akitada

1 - Rashomon Gate (Jul-2002)
2 - The Hell Screen (Sep-2003)
3 - The Dragon Scroll (Jul-2005)
4 - Black Arrow (Dec-2006)
5 - Island of Exiles (Oct-2007)
6 - The Convict's Sword (Jul-2009)
7 - The Masuda Affair (Oct-2011)
8 - The Fires of the Gods (Jan-2012)
9 - Death on an Autumn River (Mar-2013)
10 - The Emperor's Woman (Feb-2013)
11 - Death of a Doll Maker (Jan-2015)
12 - The Crane Pavilion (Jan-2014)
13 - The Old Men of Omi (Jan-2015)
14 - The Shrine Virgin (Jan-2015)
15 - The Assassin's Daughter (Jun-2015)
16 - The Island of the Gods (Dec-2015)

Book List in Order: 33 titles

  • Rashomon Gate

    Sugawara Akitada - 1

    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 tempor...

  • The Hell Screen

    Sugawara Akitada - 2

    A tangled web of deceit strikes very close to home in this new mystery of ancient Japan featuring Sugawara Akitada

    Eleventh-century Japan is the expertly realized setting for I. J. Parker?s ingenious mystery series featuring sleuth Sugawara Ak...

  • The Dragon Scroll

    Sugawara Akitada - 3

    In eleventh century Japan, Sugawara Akitada is an impoverished nobleman and earnest young government clerk in the Ministry of Justice. On his first official assignment, he is sent from the capital city on a nearly impossible mission to the distant pr...

  • Black Arrow

    Sugawara Akitada - 4

    In I. J. Parker's latest mystery set in ancient Japan, a cold and hostile land pits Akitada against his deadliest foe yet I. J. Parker's engrossing historical novels bring eleventh-century Japan to life in all its colorful, treacherous glory. As Bla...

  • Island of Exiles

    Sugawara Akitada - 5

    In I.J. Parker's newest mystery set in eleventh-century Japan, Akitada disguises himself as a prisoner to solve the, murder of a prince As her audience grows with each evocative historical thriller featuring Sugawara Akitada, I. J. Parker returns...

  • The Convict's Sword

    Sugawara Akitada - 6

    The latest in the "terrifically imaginative" (The Wall Street Journal) Akitada mystery series brings eleventh-century Japan to lifeI. J. Parker's phenomenal Akitada mystery series has been gaining fans with each new novel. The latest, The Convict's S...

  • Fox Magic

    Akitada Stories - 1

  • The Water Sprite

    Akitada Stories - 2

    A maid has disappeared, and her parents want blood money from her employer. Akitada, much against his will, has been ordered to investigate rumors that a water sprite residing in a nearby pond is to blame....

  • The Masuda Affair

    Sugawara Akitada - 7

    Eleventh-century Japan. Government official Sugawara Akitada finds a small mute boy on a deserted road. Akitada, still grieving for his own small son, determines to find the boy’s parents. Meanwhile, Akitada’s faithful servant Tora has troubles o...



  • Akitada and the Way of Justice

    Akitada Stories - 5

    Eleven stories about crime and detection in eleventh century Japan are arranged chronologically. Sugawara Akitada, a court official, solves murder cases with clues like moon cakes, Chinese lutes, feral cats, and incense. Murder happens even on tradit...

  • Akitada's First Case

    Akitada Stories - 4

    In this Shamus award story, the young Akitada becomes a detective when a father asks him to find his missing daughter. The young woman has been murdered and the suspect is a convenient peddler, but Akitada is not satisfied with that answer....

  • The Curio Dealer's Wife

    Akitada Stories - 3

  • The Fires of the Gods

    Sugawara Akitada - 8

    Eleventh-century Japan. Sugawara Akitada’s ailing wife is expecting a child, and when he loses his job and tries to confront the nobleman who is responsible for his dismissal, he ends up suspected of his murder. With no income and a growing family ...

  • Three Tales of Love and Murder

    Akitada Stories - 6

    Sugawara Akitada, a young official in the imperial government of Japan, frequently manages to anger his superiors, the police, and his acid-tongued mother with his interest in crime. In this book, he confronts three particularly repulsive criminals ...

  • Akitada's Holiday

    Akitada Stories - 7

    Murder doesn’t take holidays, and neither does Akitada. In this collection of three tales, Akitada solves crimes on New Year’s Day, during the O-bon festival of the dead, and on the occasion of the Tanabata festival celebrating the meeting of ce...

  • The Sword Master

    In the streets of twelfth-century Kyoto, a homeless boy is brutalized and left to die. A selfless physician saves him but cannot soften his hardened spirit. Angry at the world and seeking vengeance against those who killed his parents, Hachiro reject...

  • The Kamo Horse

    Akitada Stories - 8

    It’s the time of the Kamo festival and the imperial horserace. The winner, Wataru, is widely considered the luckiest of men until he finds his beautiful new bride decapitated in his bed. His futile claims of innocence send nobleman-sleuth Akitada...

  • The Emperor's Woman

    Sugawara Akitada - 10

    She was intended to be the emperor’s concubine, but she died at the bottom of a cliff near Prince Atsuhira’s private villa. The palace covered up the scandal. Months later, Akitada is drawn into the case when his best friend is accused of plott...

  • Death on an Autumn River

    Sugawara Akitada - 9

    On a river journey to Naniwa to unmask officials selling information to pirates, Akitada witnesses the recovery of a body. The image of the drowned child prostitute follows him as his own problems and disasters multiply. Someone is sabotaging his i...



  • The Left-Handed God

    Siblings Franz and Augusta face dire futures. Franz must overcome the serious physical and mental wounds suffered in battle, and his younger sister struggles against the constraints of society and a foolish mother. Add a ruthless villain and his help...

  • The Crane Pavilion

    Sugawara Akitada - 12

    After the loss of his wife and newborn son, Akitada returns home, ostensibly to care for his motherless children, but really to withdraw from the world into his grief. When his friends and family join in an effort to draw him out of his seclusion by ...

  • Death of a Doll Maker

    Sugawara Akitada - 11

    An unexpected and dubious promotion sends Akitada to Kyushu, an outpost where illegal trade with China breeds treason and murder. Leaving behind his family, he faces obstruction and hostility at his new post and learns his predecessor, a man of expen...

  • The Old Men of Omi

    Sugawara Akitada - 13

    A.D. 1030. Senior Secretary Sugawara Akitada is recovering from a knife wound and still reeling from the loss of his wife. When the Council of State orders an investigation of the claims of two warring temples, he is sent to Otsu to clear up the mat...

  • The Shrine Virgin

    Sugawara Akitada - 14

    When an imperial princess disappears from the Ise shrine, Akitada, newly governor of Mikawa Province, has barely had time to settle there with his family before he is dispatched by imperial order on a secret assignment to locate her.The world Akitada...

  • The Assassin's Daughter

    Sugawara Akitada - 15

    Fifteen years after the brutal murder of an imperial prince, the crime casts its shadow on Akitada’s family. The case is cold and the assassin dead, but his young wife’s brother wants to marry the assassin’s daughter, and Akitada is expected to...

  • The Island of the Gods

    Sugawara Akitada - 16

    From the Shamus Award winning author comes a new mystery set in Imperial Japan.In the autumn of 1033, Sugawara Akitada spends his last year as governor of Mikawa Province amidst reports of piracy and concerns about an uprising. He grieves over his tr...

  • Ikiryo: Vengeance and Justice

    Deeply distressed by his wife's adultery, Akitada returns to the capital to patch up his marriage and to help Superintendent Kobe with a case of poisoning. But before he can deal with either, the prime minister orders Akitada to save his dyinbg br...

  • The Kindness of Dragons

    On a visit to a remote mountain region with his children, Akitada hopes to find some peace after the break-up of his marriage. Instead they become involved almost immediately in the random violence that plagues the peasants of the valley. Farmers are...

  • The Nuns of Nara

    The nuns of one of the Nara temples have misplaced an imperial concubine. Concerned about her well-being, the emperor dispatches Akitada to find her. Akitada decides to take along his new wife, hoping to combine a trivial matter with a belated honeym...



  • Massacre at Shirakawa

    On the eve of the Tanabata Festival, a warrior rides into a family gathering to slaughter the members of a high-ranking family and their guests. Akitada, whose best friend is among the victims, searches for a shadowy killer who may be part of a ...

  • The Lucky Gods of Otsu

    If ever Akitada needed luck, it is now! Things are not going well for him. His new boss is out to get him, his daughter is in love with the wrong man, his ex-wife's affairs come again to haunt him, and he fears he is too old and too poor to deal with...

  • The Temple of the Dead

    Akitada discovers that his appointment as governor comes with baggage in the person of the prime minister's favorite nephew. Then things turn really ugly.He arrives to find a flooded province, mutinous nobles, and an empty tribunal, the previous incu...

  • Spring Festival in Akaiwa

    A governor's life is not an easy one. It is spring when everything starts going wrong for Akitada. The town is full of unruly festival visitors, three brutal murders remain unsolved because the suspects depart, and two rice merchants plot t...

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

I.J. Parker has published 33 books.

I.J. Parker does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, Spring Festival in Akaiwa, was published in September 2023.

The first book by I.J. Parker, Rashomon Gate, was published in July 2002.

Yes. I.J. Parker has 2 series.
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