The Assassin's Touch — Laura Joh Rowland

DEADLY SECRET
It is a lost art, passed down by the ancients in great secrecy: dim-mak, or death by the lightest touch of a finger. Sano Ichiro, in his precarious new position as the shogun's second-in-command, does not have the luxury of skepticism -- another senior official is dead, a fingerprint lightly glazed into his skin.

DEADLY CRIME
Sano's wife Reiko has an investigation of her own: a beautiful, proud, and hopelessly poor woman has confessed to murdering her family. Yet the pieces do not fit, and as Reiko looks deeper into the woman's life as a hinin -- a moral outcast, shunned by the world -- inexplicable connections appear between her investigation and Sano's.

DEADLY TOUCH
As Reiko's questions spiral her further into the squalor of life as a hinin, Sano and Hirata -- his most loyal samurai -- pursue their prey, uncovering an intricate tapestry of betrayal woven into the highest levels of the new regime. But they are no match for the one who has mastered dim-mak, a warrior who will strike all those who cross him or his path -- even Reiko.