In this eleventh installment in Rowland's popular series, Ichiro's wife Reiko continues to be a lovable vulnerability, because she likes to help the unfortunate and manages to get mixed up with some unsavory characters in the process. This time Sano also has problems with his loyal assistant Hirata, who is neglecting his job while he tries to reach new levels of achievement in the mystical martial arts.

Everything in this thriller revolves around the complex politics of the Shogun's regime. Sano is subject only to the Shogun and the royal cousin, the power behind the throne, but his enemies are legion. He's the man who is supposed to keep order everywhere, even though Tokyo's police commissioner is a deadly foe.

No sooner does Reiko come under suspicion than Sano's antagonists move to unseat him. As for the murder, everyone tells a different story--a Rashomon-like parade of witnesses tries to prove Reiko guilty, and even she's not sure she isn't. A renowned medium gets the corpse to accuse her; Lord Mori's wife insists Reiko was her husband's mistress; various retainers of the victim claim to have seen Reiko inside the compound gates on several occasions. Nobody can prove the rumor that Lord Mori amused himself sexually assaulting young boys.

Sano runs into blank walls everywhere, and when he and Hirata finally close in on the murderer, their enemies put them in deadly peril.

Rowland manages to lead the reader through this rapidly changing landscape with aplomb. The settings are realistic, showing the beauties as well as the horrors of Japan in an era unfamiliar to most of us. There's blood everywhere, but the reader will wade through it all to see whether Sano can finally establish Reiko's innocence and triumph over his deadly foes.

Some critics have complained that the quality of Rowland's work has deteriorated as she has published one book after another, but this one shows she hasn't lost her touch. Lovers of exotic mysteries will find Red Chrysanthemum well worth reading.