Title: Mystery, adventure, the samurai ethic and much more.
Product review: The book is aimed at the 9-12 age group but this 58-year-old enjoyed it enormously. I guarantee the target age group will enjoy it even more. Western culture seems bent on dumbing down. Here is a story about Asian culture that treats its intended readership with respect. And it's not just a gripping mystery story: tough, adult, concepts are introduced, but finely adjusted to maturing sensibilities. The samurai ethic is key to this story but the reader is left to make his or her own evaluation of that ethic. And then, there is the wealth of Japanese culture that is interwoven in the adventure story in a most alluring way: swords, the tea ceremony, the Edo era division of society into rigid social groupings, the Tokaido Road and its checkpoints, kabuki drama...and... who was it said "The play's the thing!"? A highly satisfying, thoroughly intelligent book for the young of all ages.
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