The Hell Screen (Sugawara Akitada Series #2) by I. J. Parker

From the Publisher

A tangled web of deceit strikes very close to home in this new mystery of ancient Japan featuring Sugawara Akitada

Eleventh-century Japan is the expertly realized setting for I. J. Parker's ingenious mystery series featuring sleuth Sugawara Akitada. In The Hell Screen, Akitada is on his way to the bedside of his dying mother when bad weather forces him to take refuge in a temple whose central treasure is a brilliantly painted hell screen. Perhaps its violent imagery influences his dreams: that night he is awakened by a scream. It's only after Akitada returns to a scene of domestic unhappiness and scandal that the significance of that cry becomes clear. For while he slept, a woman was murdered, and now he must find her killer.

Publishers Weekly

Fascinating historical detail and well-drawn characters distinguish Shamus-winner Parker's second Japanese mystery (after 2002's well-received Rashomon Gate). On his way back to the capital city of Heian Kyo (now Kyoto), Lord Sugawara Akitada, a government official with a knack for stumbling into crime, stops at a monastery to shake off the cold and get a few hours sleep. Other guests of the Buddhist monks include a well-dressed woman and her companion, a troupe of actors and a renowned artist. After Akitada views the artist's work-in-progress, aptly called the "Hell Screen," his sleep is filled with nightmarish images and a bloodcurdling scream. Not sure whether he was dreaming, Akitada wanders around the monastery but finds nothing amiss. After an early morning departure, Akitada arrives at his ancestral home to visit his dying mother and soon learns of a heinous murder. Realizing the crime took place at the monastery where he slept, Akitada can't resist investigating. Many complications and subplots ensue, all rendered in expertly evocative prose. Parker's remarkable command of 11th-century Japanese history-from the rituals of the royal court to the minutia of daily life within Japan's often rigid caste system-makes for an excellent whodunit. Readers will be enchanted by Akitada, an honorable sleuth who proves more progressive than his time. (Aug. 4) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Sugawara Akitada (Rashomon Gate) returns to Heian Kyo, the capital city of 11th-century Japan, because his mother is desperately ill. On his way, he stops at a monastery, where he views a brilliantly painted screen depicting the torments of hell and later hears a woman's scream in the night. He discovers that the scream came from a dead woman supposedly murdered by her alleged lover. Akitada gravitates to the case immediately, all the while investigating for his new brother-in-law the mysterious disappearance of treasures from the imperial collection. A wealth of colorful detail-artistic, social, historical, and personal-breathes life into an excellent historical. This will appeal to readers who enjoy the samurai mysteries of Dale Furatani. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Eleventh-century Japanese sleuth Akitada (Rashomon Gate, 2002) faces family turmoil and multiple mysteries in a richly appointed historical yarn. A brutal prologue depicts a quartet of anonymous characters. A woman orders a man to cut the throat of another woman, apparently sleeping deeply, then to mutilate her face with the same sword and place it in the hands of another loudly snoring man. This opening crime stays on a back burner while Parker follows the odyssey of government clerk/nobleman/amateur detective Sugawara Akitada, who's summoned from his work in the northern provinces to the capital, where his mother lies gravely ill. As he suffers the characteristic abuse of the dying Lady Sugawara, Akitada copes with other family crises. Toshikage, the husband of Akiko, his elder sister, stands accused of pilfering government treasures. Akitada's other sister, Yoshiko, loves Kojiro, a landowner whose social status makes him an unacceptable husband. But those are the least of his problems. At length, Kojiro is implicated in the novel's opening murder, which Akitada realizes he was an earwitness to. As in Akitada's previous adventure, obtuse police inspector Kobe bristles at Akitada's meticulous sleuthing. An amusing subplot keeps Akitada's retainer Tora running afoul of jumbo lady sumo wrestler Miss Plumblossom. Plot and mysteries aplenty. Though his prose could still use less starch, Parker effectively captures this colorful ancient culture.

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