An unexpected and dubious promotion sends Akitada to Kyushu, an outpost where illegal trade with China breeds treason and murder. Leaving behind his family, he faces obstruction and hostility at his new post and learns his predecessor, a man of expensive tastes, has disappeared under suspicious circumstances. As Tora and Saburo delve into the underworld of Hakata, Akitada tracks a ruthless traitor. The brutal murder of the Chinese wife of a doll maker sets into motion events that leave a trail of bodies. Worse, as the number of unexplained deaths mounts, Tora also disappears. Untangling the skeins of intrigue, Akitada follows leads from the seductive attention of a beautiful courtesan to the secretive business world of Chinatown and discovers that doing his duty has an even higher price than expected.About the AuthorI.J. Parker was born and educated in Europe and turned to mystery writing after an academic career in the U.S. She published her short stories in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, winning the short story Shamus award in 2000. The Akitada novels, a series about an eleventh century Japanese nobleman/detective, now consists of ten titles, with an eleventh to be released soon. The books are available in print, audio, and electronic formats. They have been translated into twelve languages. The short stories are available in electronic format. I.J. Parker is also the author of several historical novels set during the Heike Wars in twelfth century Japan, and of a historical thriller set in eighteenth century Europe.

In this Shamus award story, the young Akitada becomes a detective when a father asks him to find his missing daughter. The young woman has been murdered and the suspect is a convenient peddler, but Akitada is not satisfied with that answer.

If ever Akitada needed luck, it is now! Things are not going well for him. His new boss is out to get him, his daughter is in love with the wrong man, his ex-wife's affairs come again to haunt him, and he fears he is too old and too poor to deal with any of it. Then his old friend dies suddenly from a case of indigestion that looks suspiciously like murder and the problems escalate into the deadly violence of two ruthless killers. He has to save not only his career and his reputation, but his life.

On the eve of the Tanabata Festival, a warrior rides into a family gathering to slaughter the members of a high-ranking family and their guests. Akitada, whose best friend is among the victims, searches for a shadowy killer who may be part of a secret conspiracy against the emperor himself. In his determination, he defies orders, involves his friends and his sister, and puts his family in danger. Meanwhile, his faithful retainer Tora risks life and limb in a world of thugs and prostitutes to solve the bloody murder of a schoolmaster's wife. Both will suffer the consequences of pursuing ruthless adversaries who are determined to ruin or kill them.

On a visit to a remote mountain region with his children, Akitada hopes to find some peace after the break-up of his marriage. Instead they become involved almost immediately in the random violence that plagues the peasants of the valley. Farmers are murdered, rice stores are burned, and young girls disappear. The local policeman seems honest, but soon Akitada fears to trust anyone. When his retainer is arrested for murder and his daughter nearly caught by bandits, he fights back. Powerless and far from court, he must confront the ruthless villain behind the crimes.

The nuns of one of the Nara temples have misplaced an imperial concubine. Concerned about her well-being, the emperor dispatches Akitada to find her. Akitada decides to take along his new wife, hoping to combine a trivial matter with a belated honeymoon. Alas, murder intervenes. An old man dies in the snow. A nun is fished out of an icy river. Another nun is bludgeoned to death. What had looked like a pleasant excursion quickly turns into one of Akitada's most shocking and dangerous cases.

On a river journey to Naniwa to unmask officials selling information to pirates, Akitada witnesses the recovery of a body. The image of the drowned child prostitute follows him as his own problems and disasters multiply. Someone is sabotaging his investigation. His young clerk disappears, Akitada is attacked by two thugs, and armed men brutalize his family in the capital. When Tora joins his master, they both fall into the hands of the pirates and must fight a battle to the death to escape. But ultimately it is the tragic story of the dead girl that will haunt Akitada most.About the AuthorI.J. Parker was born and educated in Europe and turned to mystery writing after an academic career in the U.S. She published her short stories in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, winning the short story Shamus award in 2000. The Akitada novels, a series about an eleventh century Japanese nobleman/detective, now consists of ten titles, with an eleventh to be released soon. The books are available in print, audio, and electronic formats. They have been translated into twelve languages. The short stories are available in electronic format. I.J. Parker is also the author of several historical novels set during the Heike Wars in twelfth century Japan, and of a historical thriller set in eighteenth century Europe.

Akitada discovers that his appointment as governor comes with baggage in the person of the prime minister's favorite nephew. Then things turn really ugly.He arrives to find a flooded province, mutinous nobles, and an empty tribunal, the previous incumbent having fled from a hostile population. When the P.M.'s nephew disappears, a frantic search of an abandoned temple turns up a dark and murderous secret. Murders multiply: a merchant finds his wife's headless body and a man is tortured to death. Add two seductive young women who have a plan of their own and both Akitada's career and marriage are threatened.

Siblings Franz and Augusta face dire futures. Franz must overcome the serious physical and mental wounds suffered in battle, and his younger sister struggles against the constraints of society and a foolish mother. Add a ruthless villain and his helpers to the tale, stir in assassination plots, and dangerous temptations, and only an eccentric lawyer and an unlikely gallant can forestall disaster.**About the AuthorI.J. Parker was born and educated in Germany and turned to mystery writing after an academic career in the U.S. She published her short stories in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, winning the short story Shamus award in 2000. The Akitada novels, a series about an eleventh century Japanese nobleman/detective, now consists of eleven titles, with a twelfth to be released soon. The books are available in print, audio, and electronic formats. They have been translated into twelve languages. The short stories are available in electronic format. I.J. Parker is also the author of several historical novels set during the Heike Wars in twelfth century Japan, and of a historical thriller set in eighteenth century Europe.

Product DescriptionIn the tempestuous closing years of the twelfth century, the fourteen-year-old Oba Toshiko, daughter of a provincial warlord, enters the women’s quarters of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, her body bartered for favor at court. Toshiko’s talent as a singer of popular songs and her innocence excite the emperor’s lust and the dangerous jealousy of Lady Sanjo. An accidental and forbidden meeting with the noble physician Yamada Sadahira tempts Toshiko’s heart and tests her loyalty to her family. When her enemy strikes, she flees the palace to be with Sadahira. Impeccably researched, I.J. Parker’s DREAM OF A SPRING NIGHT begins the saga of the Yamada family, of Toshiko and Sadahira, and of the enigmatic adopted son Hachiro. Their fate will play out against the violence and pageantry of the Heike Wars and the fall of the empire.

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.