| Rating: | ★★ |
| Category: | Books |
| Genre: | Mystery & Thrillers |
| Author: | Laura Joh Rowland |
Normally, I take a few days to finish her book, but this book takes a lot of inspiration from the movie "Rashomon Gate" and I was able to glance through many portions, especially the surrealistic recollections of Lady Reiko.
Fortunately, "Rashomon Gate" was only half the story. The other half involved the more conventional detective methods of trying to solve a case.
The main characters - Sano, Hirata and Reiko, behaved rather differently compared to the past. Clues and trails that should have been obvious were missed.
One rather glaring historical/cultural inconsistency was naming a missing boy as Jiro. Jiro is a typical Japanese name for a 2nd son, but his mother had no other children.
The ending came a bit of a rush, with a lot of unresolved loose ends mysteriously disappeared. Rowland made it too obvious for setting up a second book.
At the same time, no enough development was given to account for the shift in the characters of the cast.
Wondering how long will it take for the National Library to get a copy of the 12th Sano Ichiro book, "The Snow Empress", when it is published by St. Martin's Minotaur in October 30, 2007.
ReplyDeleteOur library isn't known for its punctuality in stocking our shelves with new titles. I am still waiting for Fan Wu's book February Flowers to be out on the shelves.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I do have a copy of that. Would you like to borrow it?
Thanks, but not at this time.
ReplyDeleteActually, the library used to be quite early in acquiring newly released titles.
Still do, but they expended their repertoire considerably and thus have to rotate between different genres which titles to stock up early.
And for certain series, when they expect paperback, they'll wait for paperbacks.
I guess so. I'm too busy nowadays to read fiction anyway.
ReplyDelete