Flask of the Drunken Master
A Shinobi Mystery
-
- £8.99
-
- £8.99
Publisher Description
Flask of the Drunken Master is the latest entry in Susan Spann's thrilling 16th century Japanese mystery series, featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo.
August 1565: When a rival artisan turns up dead outside Ginjiro's brewery, and all the evidence implicates the brewer, master ninja Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo must find the killer before the magistrate executes Ginjiro and seizes the brewery, leaving his wife and daughter destitute.
A missing merchant, a vicious debt collector, and a female moneylender join Ginjiro and the victim's spendthrift son on the suspect list. But with Kyoto on alert in the wake of the shogun's recent death, a rival shinobi on the prowl, and samurai threatening Hiro and Father Mateo at every turn, Ginjiro's life is not the only one in danger.
Will Hiro and Father Mateo unravel the clues in time to save Ginjiro's life, or will the shadows gathering over Kyoto consume the detectives as well as the brewer?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Spann does a good job recreating 1565 Japan in her otherwise so-so third mystery featuring Fr. Mateo vila de Santos and his ninja bodyguard, Hattori Hiro (after 2014's Blade of the Samurai). One morning in Kyoto, Mateo and Hiro are ordering breakfast from a noodle vendor when they hear cries from a brewery down the street. The police have arrested a brewer, Ginjori, for murder, while Suke, a monk, yells that he's the real killer. The victim, Chikao, was also a brewer, until someone used a sake flask to bash his head in. Hiro, who owes Ginjori a favor, displays expertise in analyzing blood-splatter patterns that equals any shown on TV's CSI franchise. Mateo questions the integrity of the official inquiry, and the pair manages to get a delay in Ginjori's trial so they can ascertain the truth. Close attention to period detail makes up in part for the underdeveloped leads and a less than gripping plot.
