Fires of Edo (A Shinobi Mystery)
This is the eighth book in Susan Spann’s Shinobi Mystery series, Shinobi being a refinement of ninjas. The year is 1566. Ninja Hiro Hattori and his friend, Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo, arrive in the city of Edo in pursuit of some dangerous renegades. They come upon the third fire to have struck the bookseller’s guild in a month. This time, the dismembered body of a samurai is found among the wreckage, immediately making it a case for Hiro and his friend.
A quick, simple, and satisfying mystery, especially for those already introduced to the time and place and happy to re-meet old characters. My personal taste, however, would be for more: More character development. More details of Edo booksellers, which we know were a pinnacle of the art, or at least would shortly become so. More feeling for Edo, the castle, and so on. Readers told that ninjas are involved may want more of the dark skill. Those knowing the position of Christians in this time and place may ask for more of that uneasy relationship. We do have enough of, in this case, the communal efforts of 16th-century firefighting, which is well-drawn and well-researched, primed no doubt by Spann’s investigations into the great fire that would hit this city in a hundred years. And a visit to the baths is also particularly well-drawn.
We hope a new installment will bring more soon.
