Лаура Джо Роуленд: Жапон тарихы мен детективтер әлемі

American detective/mystery author

Laura Joh Rowland is an American detective/mystery author best known for her series of historical mystery novels featuring protagonist Sano Ichirō (佐野 一郎) set in feudal Japan, mostly in Edo during the late 17th century. She is also the author of two other historical mystery series, one featuring a fictionalized Charlotte Brontë, as well an ongoing series set in Victorian England around the time of the Jack the Ripper murders. Rowland is the daughter of Chinese American and Korean American immigrants. She grew up in Michigan and was educated at the University of Michigan, where she graduated with a B. S. in Microbiology and a Masters in Public health. She lived in New Orleans, Louisiana until Hurricane Katrina nearly destroyed her house, but now lives in New York City.

The novels deal with the experiences of Sano Ichirō, a samurai and minor official who, by the end of the first novel, became the trusted chief investigator for the fifth Tokugawa shōgun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, and by the tenth novel, was promoted to a very high office. Throughout the stories, Sano constantly had to deal with his problems following the code of bushido while serving both justice and his master, the Shogun; and with his wife, Ueda Reiko (上田 麗子), who frequently involves herself in Sano's investigations. Sano experiences great pressure as he is faced with death if he does not fulfill his obligations to the shōgun as well. Rowland takes some literary license with known figures, creating fictionalized versions of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Emperor Higashiyama in The Samurai's Wife, and Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu. Objective historical details, however, are credibly accurate.

It is not known if it is intentional that the protagonist's name Sano Ichirō could be interpreted as a homage to one of Japan's most famous deductive fiction writers, Murayama Ichirō (丸山 一郎), born in 1928, who uses the pen name of Sano Yo (佐野洋). The title of the first novel is the Romanized form of the term written in kanji as 心中, pronounced as Shinjū, which refers to a suicide pact by a pair of lovers. The title of the second novel is the Romanized form of the term written in katakana as ブンドリ (bu n do ri), which means "seizing the soil of the vanquished", or simply spoils of war or war trophy.

The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë. Overlook Press; 2008. Bedlam: The Further Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë. Overlook Press; 2010.

The Ripper's Shadow: A Victorian Mystery. Crooked Lane Books; 2017. A Mortal Likeness: A Victorian Mystery. Crooked Lane Books; 2018. The Hangman's Secret: A Victorian Mystery. Crooked Lane Books; 2019. The Woman in the Veil: A Victorian Mystery. Crooked Lane Books; 2020. Portrait of Peril: A Victorian Mystery. Crooked Lane Books; 2021. Garden of Sin: A Victorian Mystery. Crooked Lane Books; 2022.