When beautiful, wealthy Yukiko and low-born artist Noriyoshi are found drowned together in a shinju, or ritual double suicide, everyone believes the culprit was forbidden love. Everyone but newly appointed yoriki Sano Ichiro.Despite the official verdict and warnings from his superiors, the shogun's Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People suspects the deaths weren't just a tragedy -- they were murder. Risking his family's good name and his own...

Powerful insights from ministers, theologians, activists, leaders, artists and liturgists who are shaping the future."Christianity has been a source of the oppression of women, as well as a resource for unleashing women's full humanity. Feminist analysis and practice have recognized this. Feminist Christianity is reshaping religious institutions and religious life in more holistic, inclusive, and justice-focused ways."—from the IntroductionFeminism h...

With Jack the Ripper terrorizing Victorian London, a motley crew of amateur sleuths investigates the dark alleys of Whitechapel to bring the killer to justiceJack the Ripper begins his reign of terror in the year 1888 when Miss Sarah Bain, a photographer in Whitechapeland—and an independent woman with dark secrets—gets roped in on the crime. In the privacy of her studio, she supplements her meager income by taking illicit “boudoir photographs” of the town's local l...

Laura Joh Rowland's acclaimed Sano Ichiro novels, set in seventeenth-century Japan, are riveting, richly imagined, and suspenseful. As Sano navigates a treacherous political landscape he works to protect the people of Edo, his family, and his honor in these compelling thrillers.The Concubine's TattooSano Ichiro, the Shogun's most honorable investigator, is summoned to the imperial palace to find the murderer of a young concubine poi...

The history of the Icelandic Republic is the story of refugees, adventurers and free spirits who escaped an ambitious autocrat and built their own state on this distant island of fire and ice. By 930, the new state had developed enough to establish the Althing, the national assembly of all Icelanders of voting age. It has survived all the turmoil of time to this day. But the history of the Icelandic Republic is also a history of failure. Aristotle is reported to have said that "democracy a...

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.Japan, 1709. The shogun is old and ailing. Amid the ever-treacherous intrigue in the court, Sano Ichiro has been demoted from chamberlain to a lowly patrol guard. His relationship with his wife Reiko is in tatters, and a bizarre new alliance between his two enemies Yanag...

The Fire Kimono is another dazzling historical mystery set in feudal Japan from acclaimed author Laura Joh Rowland.Japan, March 1700. The strife between Sano Ichiro, the samurai detective who has risen to power in the shogun's court, and his enemies has escalated to the brink of war.When a long-buried skeleton with mysterious links to the shogun suddenly comes to light, Sano and his wife, Reiko, who defies social conventions by joining in his investi...

The acclaimed mystery series set in feudal Japan featuring Detective Sano Ichiro as he races to solve a murder mystery and save his abducted son.Japan, 1699: On a moonlit night on the northern frontier island of Ezogashima, a woman is running through the forest when an arrow strikes her dead. Meanwhile, in the city of Edo, the young son of Sano Ichiro, the samurai detective who has risen to power in the shogun's court, vanishes during a moon-watching festival. When...

From the "compelling and lively series," a samurai detective and his sleuthing wife investigate connected murders in feudal Japan ( Dallas Morning News ).May 1695. During a horse race at Edo Castle the chief of the shogun's intelligence service, Ejima Senzaemon, drops dead as his horse gallops across the finish line—the fourth in a recent series of sudden deaths of high-ranking officials. Sano Ichiro is ordered to investig...

From an author with "a painter's eye for the minutiae of court life [and] a politician's ear for intrigue," a retelling of the revenge tale of the 47 Ronin ( The New York Times ).Japan, 1703. On a snowy night, forty-seven warriors murder the man at the center of the scandal that turned them from samurai into masterless ronin two years before. Clearly this was an act of revenge—but why did they wait so long? And is there an...

Laura Joh Rowland's thrilling series set in Feudal Japan is as gripping and entertaining as ever with The Shogun's Daughter.Japan, 1704. In an elegant mansion a young woman named Tsuruhime lies on her deathbed, attended by her nurse. Smallpox pustules cover her face. Incense burns, to banish the evil spirits of disease. After Tsuruhime takes her last breath, the old woman watching from the doorway says, "Who's going to tell the Shogun his daughter is dead?...

The award-winning sixteenth Sano Ichiro mystery is "fascinating . . . there are few things as delicious as a good old-fashioned power struggle" ( Oprah.com ).In the wake of a terrifying earthquake, Sano races to solve a crime that could bring down the shogun's regime . . .Japan, 1703. A devastating earthquake has left the city of Edo in shambles—even the shogun's carefully regulated court is teetering on the brink ...