Samurai Detective

While attempting to solve the mystery of a stolen jewel, Seikei, a merchant's son who longs to be a samurai, joins a group of kabuki actors in eighteenth-century Japan...

The beautiful, mysterious women of Japan are being killed one by one. The famous samurai Judge Ooka knows he will need help to solve the crimes, so he turns to his newly adopted son, fourteen-year-old Seikei. Determined to prove his worth as a samurai, Seikei goes undercover as a teahouse attendant in the exotic "floating city" of Yoshiwara, where demons lurk among the pleasure seekers and no one is safe - not even a samurai.

Samurai Lord Inaba has been murdered in his sleep, while guards stood outside his room. When Judge Ooka and his foster son Seikei arrive to investigate, they find a bloodstained origami butterfly on the floor of the room. Who could have left it, and what is the meaning? The trail leads to mysterious shape-shifting ninjas, vengeful peasants, and a killer who will stop at nothing to keep Seikei from discovering his true identity. In this Edgar-award-winning audiobook, Seikei comes into his true inheritance by winning a pair of samurai swords.

When the teen-age samurai apprentice, Seikei, is sent on a mission by the shogun, he believes it to be a simple one. The 14-year-old Emperor has refused to carry out his ceremonial duties, and Seikei must persuade him to resume his proper place. But when the emperor is kidnapped in an elaborate plot to overthrow the shogun, Seikei’s mission becomes much more dangerous. With the help of a mysterious warrior, he must rescue the Emperor before the sacred sword falls into the wrong hands.

For Seikei, the adopted son of the famous samurai Judge Ooka with a knack for solving mysteries, a trip home to see his real family isn’t cause to celebrate. His brother has become mixed up with local criminals who use the family’s tea shop as a front for a smuggling operation. His sister, meanwhile, has fallen in love with an apprentice to a puppet master who stands accused of murder. Somehow, Seikei senses the two are connected. His loyalties divided between his new family and his old, Seikei must find the real killer before it is too late.

The most exciting installment to the Edgar Award winning Samurai Mystery series. When a man with a tattoo covering his back is found floating in the water at a rice ceremony, Seikei and Judge Ooka know it's a bad omen. Soon there are seven of these men with partial tattoos on their backs. All different, all dead, all seemingly unrelated - except for the tattoos. It becomes apparent these men are not just carrying body art, but a treasure map…to what? And why is carrying this map so mortally dangerous? Seikei must find and assemble all seven tattoos to find the answer.