REVIEWS FROM DEVORAH STONE
in CANADA
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THE FIRE KIMONO
LAURA JOH ROWLAND
Minotaur pb 9/09
I could not imagine how Laura Joh Rowland could possibly top her last novel, THE SNOW EMPRESS, which I called 'enthralling' and 'a triumph' for the way it combined 'standard mystery novel elements' and 'rational' deductions with 'tribal spirituality and otherworldliness.' In THE FIRE KIMONO, the author takes another route towards the deeply personal by delving into dark family secrets. I am happy to report that this book was as satisfying as the last one.
As the rivalry between Sano Ichiro and Lord Matsudaira continues, a strong wind uncovers a long forgotten skeleton imbedded in a tree. Sano identifies the skeleton, through the swords that were with it, as the Shogun's cousin, who went missing forty years earlier. The cousin disappeared just before a great fire that almost destroyed the city.
Shockingly, Sano's own mother is accused of killing the missing boy. He has three days to clear his mother. If not, not only will she be executed but so will their entire family. Sano has to face some uncomfortable truths about his mother's past and a painful family secret that could destroy them all. If life wasn't desperate enough, Sano's wife Lady Reiko uncovers a plot to kill the household by their own retainers. Someone is determined to destroy them by whatever means they can and Lord Matsudaira swears it's not him.
While reading this book, I thought Sano's situation so hopeless that he should take his family and head for Korea or China or even go back to Ezogashima and hide amongst the Ainu. He doesn't; instead he uncovers the truth and finds some disturbing but ultimately liberating things about his mother's past.
The unending struggle for power and the machinations between the leading families continues. All Sano has to fight back with are his wits, and he'll need every one of them just to survive this round.
I can't wait to find out what the author has in store for Sano next.
- Devorah Stone
TO KNOW EVIL
STEPHEN GASPAR
Pemberley Press Trade PBO 10/09
In the year 999 AD, Brother Thomas of Worms reaches a monastery in Northern Italy. A well-traveled man, he is at odds with the Abbot who fears his arrogance. He befriends a young monk, Nicolas, with a fine mind and a wonderful voice, whom he mentors. Thomas begins to copy a manuscript when monks die under suspicious circumstances. He suspects murder but the Abbot insists it's not. Thomas confides in Nicolas and together they search the underground labyrinth of the monasteries, where they discover Gnostic manuscripts including 'The Book of Judas'. The entirety of the text is right there in the novel. I found it fascinating and thought provoking.
TO KNOW EVIL is written in a simple, straightforward style that I found refreshing. There were times when I felt I was there in the quiet, subdued, yet intense world. The author digs deep into the psyche of the monks and manages to create a life that is so alien to our own, and yet the emotions and basic human needs are still there. The tension between the isolation, simplicity and innocence of the monastery life, the gruesome deaths, the resolution of the Abbot, and the growing suspicions of Thomas build with every page. There is evil here and somehow the early Gnostic sect has something to do with it.
Yet this novel is needlessly flawed. There are little phrases and speech patterns that jerked me out of the spell. Three quarters of the way through, I almost stopped reading it because of an historical inaccuracy so blatant that I didn't want to continue.
I'm glad I read on. While I figured out the murderer in a timely manner, there were still many other mysteries to unearth. So much of what the learned Thomas thought was true and accepted wasn't. In the end his own logic failed him.
The deepest mystery of all is love. In the end this is a surprisingly gentle love story that speaks through the ages.
- Devorah Stone