Three Tales of Love and Murder — I.J. Parker

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 and takes considerable personal risks. He solves the murder of bride in “Death and Cherry Blossoms,” accuses his cousin of poisoning a maid in “The Incense Murders,” and rescues Tora from a murder charge in “Instruments of Murder”.