Sano's quest for the truth about her death will unmask the most ruthless killer he's ever met and have serious repercussions for Sano, his family, and the future of Japan

There are also people who were close to Tsuruhime and wanted her gone for more personal reasons. There are suspects who have designs on the throne and might have wanted to eliminate the shogun's daughter so that she couldn't bear a son and complicate the issue of whom the shogun will choose to be his heir and successor. It looks like a natural death, but Sano thinks it's murder. Riveting and richly imagined, with a magnificent sense of time and place, The Iris Fan is the triumphant conclusion to Laura Joh Rowland's brilliant series of thrillers set in feudal Japan.į ive months after the great earthquake that devastated Edo, the shogun's daughter Tsuruhime dies of smallpox. As the previously unimaginable death of the shogun seems ever more possible, Sano finds himself at the center of warring forces that threaten not only his own family but Japan itself. And Sano has enemies of his own, as well as unexpected allies. If the shogun's heir is displeased, he will have Sano and his family put to death without waiting for the shogun's permission, then worry about the consequences later. This is the most significant, and most dangerous, investigation of his career. Sano is restored to the rank of chief investigator to find the culprit. In his own palace, the shogun is stabbed with a fan made of painted silk with sharp-pointed iron ribs. Then a harrowing, almost inconceivable crime takes place. Yet, Sano's dedication to the Way of the Warrior-the samurai code of honor-is undiminished. Sano's onetime friend Hirata is a reluctant conspirator in a plot against the ruling regime. His relationship with his wife Reiko is in tatters, and a bizarre new alliance between his two enemies Yanagisawa and Lord Ienobu has left him puzzled and wary. Amid the ever-treacherous intrigue in the court, Sano Ichiro has been demoted from chamberlain to a lowly patrol guard.

The Iris Fan by Laura Joh Rowland