A complex and dark Japanese medieval mystery.

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Dead Blossoms: The Third Geisha by Richard Monaco





1552. Three shipwreck survivors wash up on the Japanese shoreline and are immediately embroiled in a struggle for lordship and supremacy amongst the Japanese clans.
Jiro Tazeko, a  classless samurai detective finds himself embroiled in the same unrest.
The daughter of a lord's house has been murdered. One of the foreigners has been accused. However, Tazeko discovers some very odd facts, including the suspicion that the dead girl is not the Lady Osan.
As plots are overlayed by more plots the end spirals out of control. All is revealed as this feudal world explodes in a fiery ball and then is reignited by a typhoon.
Who wins is moot. What is left is ash and wind.
I do like Tazeko, the hard boiled, hard drinking,16th Century Sam Spade type character.

A NetGalley ARC

*** 1/2

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