The Samurai's Wife — Laura Joh Rowland

IN THE IMPERIAL CITY OF KYOTO, POWER IS MERELY CEREMONIAL.
BUT AN ANCIENT EVEIL STILL SURVIVES...

Far from the shogun's court at Edo, Most Honorable Investigator Sano Ichiro begins the- most challenging case of his career. Upon the insistence of his strong-willed and beautiful wife Reiko, Sano arrives with her at the emperor's palace to unmask the murderer--who possesses the secret of kiai, "the spirit cry," a powerful scream that can kill instantly. A high Kyoto official is the victim. Treading carefully through a web of spies, political intrigue, forbidden passions, and intricate plots, Sano and Reiko must struggle to stay ahead of the palace storms-and outwit a cunning killer. But as they soon discover, solving the case means more than their survival. For if they fail, Japan could be consumed in the bloodiest war it has ever seen...

A legendary land cones alive in this compelling, murder mystery set in seventeenth-century Japan. Filled with finely drawn characters and suspenseful plot twists, The Samurai's Wife is a novel as complex, vivid, and artful as the glorious, lost world it portrays.