I.J. Parker

Very entertaining and interesting. I will definitely read more in this series.

I picked this Kindle book up back in November 2013 and was determined to read it this fall so I have caught up on the series during the year using the library to fill in the gaps. And I am glad that I did end up reading them in order as some of the impact of this one would have been lessened if the reader wasn't aware of the history and relationship between the main characters.

Well done historical fiction, as always with Parker's Akitada mysteries. However, I found Sugawara as a character a bit more annoying in this 6th entry in the series. He seemed more ineffectual especially regarding his relationship with his wife. The 11th century Japanese attitude towards women is responsible for part of that but he has previously been more of a rebel albeit a quiet one.

The mystery itself was fine although I did foresee some of the solution...

Le second volume des enquêtes de Akitada Sugawara plonge le lecteur dans le milieu universitaire japonais du 11e siècle, ses intrigues, ses compromissions, ses rivalités aussi bien intellectuelles que de prestige, ses tricheries et ses amitiés. Un roman policier qui pourrait être plus condensé, et y gagnerait en force, mais qui plaît par sa documentation historique, culturelle et sociale fouillée.