Black Arrow

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Mystery & Thrillers
Author:	I. J. Parker

Not to be confused with Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow, I finally detected some sense in I. J. Parker's initial publishers decision to rearrange the order of publication of the novels she had written.

Rashomon Gate and The Hell Screen were promising, and Dragon Scroll was subtly better, but Black Arrow, was actually the best of the lot, by such a margin that readers would probably be disappointed had the books been published in internal chronological order.

I. J. Parker's website mentioned her original publisher (St. Martin’s Press) switched the orders, and she left them in 2004 and went to Penguin, and she is "very glad that Penguin is committed to the series as it is meant to evolve."

Perhaps I should drop her a note to tell her my theory, and my own review after reading her books published so far.

In internal chronology, the protagonist, Akitada Sugawara, was posted to be governor of a "distant" province of Echigo (越後国). The term distant here is relative as Echigo is part of today's Niigata Prefecture (新潟県), on northeast coast of Honshu but not the furthest north.

In 11th century Japan though, it was a relatively recent addition to the Heian kingdom.

The author designated the Uesugi clan (上杉氏) as its local daimyo, the equivalent of European marquis installed to develop recently acquired border marches. The daimyo's power was balanced by the appointment of the governor by the ruler based in the capital Heian (Modern day Kyoto). The author did not specify on the accuracy of the hierarchy of powers she created. But she did make a note that the historical Uesugi clan only came into existence at a later period, though Echigo was indeed part of their domain. (A double-check with wikipedia confirmed that the name Uesugi was only adopted by a Kajūji Shigefusa in the 13th century, and the clan claimed descendance from the Fujiwaras, a prominent Imperial-in-law clan).

Akitada arrived in Echigo to find the governor's tribunal office and residence in shameful dilapidation. Previous governors had found themselves powerless against the local daimyo.

Akitada also found the official granary empty, giving him little resources to deal with all his problems, most ominously, the seeming ambition of the Uesugi heir apparent, acting daimyo for his indisposed father.

Nevertheless, he had at least the foresight to send Genba, one of his trusted henchman, ahead of him and undercover among the locals, assuming the trade of a professional wrestler.

At the beginning of the novel, a murder of a local innkeeper saw the suspicious arrest of three guests of the inn, bringing into open the conflict between the governor and the local administration (constabulary and judge).

Later, there was a party at the Uesugi's castle where Akitada encountered the rich local merchant, a head of the local Buddhist temple, and the local pharmacist. Akitada had to measure these men carefully, despite his physical sickness, to see who would be his foes, and who his allies.

The following days brought news of the daimyo's death. Remembering an unusual occurence from the party, Akitada secretly searched near the castle and discovered the corpse of the daimyo's longtime personal retainer.

Though he faced a rebellious public and murderous foes, his men managed to win him some allies amongst the outcasts.

Slowly, more disparate pieces of the puzzle emerged - starting with a murder from four decades before, to more strange corpses appearing in the tribunal, army deserters and traditional games giving an important clue to the mystery.

The author managed to reveal the pieces in an infuriating way to tantalise the readers and defy attempts to piece them together. I must add though the way in which Akitada managed to get start really cracking the case was a letdown, defeating one of the main villain rather too easily, and then accessing the key information he would need.

After what appeared to be the climatic end which saw Akitada losing one of his most loyal henchman, there was a final revelation which put everything back together into the grand scheme of things, making it a worthy opus to be counted alongside Robert Hans van Gulik's Judge Dee series.