Finished a few more books, including
Claws of the Cat,
Blade of the Samurai, and
Flask of the Drunken Master, which comprise #1-3 in
Susan Spann's Shinobi Mysteries historical series set in 16th century Japan during the height of the Warring States period. These were off the library shelf, which was featuring #3 as part of an October mystery reads display, and for which I picked up the first two during a trip to another branch on impulse to try first, which I'm glad I did.
If you've ever read and/or watched James Clavell's
Shōgun and thought “You know what I'd really like to see? This premise done as a mismatched buddy cop murder mystery series, but starring a version of the Jesuit priest that's closer to his
original historical inspiration and a secret ninja: together, they fight crime!”, well, this is the series for you.
Actually, I'm being more flippant than these really deserve, since these are reasonably serious historical drama with a decent basis in actual events (set during the last days of the Ashikaga shogunate), but it really does feel like that when reading them, and it's a fun feeling.
Anyway, this series pairs together Hiro, the series-titular secret ninja posing undercover as a samurai bodyguard and occasional translator to Father Mateo, a Jesuit missionary working among the commoners' district in Kyoto rather than at the larger mission that serves the nobility, and together, they do indeed fight crime in the time-honoured manner of first stumbling across random bodies, and then getting noticed for their murder-solving skills and becoming the go-to amateur sleuths when their friends and family get accused.
There's a good amount of historicity and cultural background to these: there's a glossary in the back of each book, the author puts up
extra notes for them on her website, and there are even occasional cameos from actual historical personages. Not to mention, the actual events of the time period begin to have a noticeable impact on the characters, as the upcoming political chaos begins to affect their daily lives.
The cultural differences between the Portuguese and the Japanese are nicely portrayed, with the author putting some thought into depicting the historical mindsets of both in a mostly sympathetic and relatable manner, making use of Father Mateo's ignorant foreigner status to let him get away with asking what would otherwise be socially unacceptable questions among the Japanese, and also Hiro's battlefield and medical treatment skills to add a touch of proto-forensic evaluations of the crime scenes.
Not that they work together as a perfectly-oiled amateur sleuthing machine, since there's still plenty of room for them to clash both culturally as well as individual personality-wise, as Hiro frequently thinks that while Father Mateo's tendency to just ask rudely prying questions is useful, he also stumbles by giving away too much in conversation as an unskilled interrogator. And there's a bunch of as-yet unexplained backstory about how Father Mateo came to know that his bodyguard was actually a ninja, considering that they're supposed to be very secretive clans, which gives a feeling of extra depth to their working relationship.
Best out of context quote:
Quote:
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Dying men didn't usually display a functional grasp of irony.
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Recommended if you enjoy mismatched buddy cop historical murder mysteries in unusual settings, especially if one of those settings happens to be the brief period of open international trade co-operation before the Tokugawa shogunate mostly closed the islands off until Perry and his ships forced them open again. Despite the ostensibly violent background of the setting, these are mostly light-hearted and rather enjoyable crime-solving adventures and I'm pleased to see that the series is continuing through to at least #5 and from #4 onwards they're out from a couponable publisher and are going on my wishlist for the next good Kobo offer.