Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, where today I’m talking to the ever-prolific Josh Reynolds about his latest novel for Aconyte Books – Poison River, which is set in the Legends of the Five Rings world. If you fancy a detective story set in a fantasy world inspired by feudal Japan, this is going to be the book for you…and it’s the first in a series too, so there’s more still to come! It’s due out in ebook and as a US paperback on the 1st December, with the UK paperback following on the 7th January 2021.
Without further ado, let’s get straight on with the interview…
Track of Words: To start off, tell us a bit about your new novel Poison River. What’s it about?
Josh Reynolds: I think the blurb says it best – ‘A charming slacker aristocrat discovers a talent for detection and a web of conspiracies in the Emerald Empire’. Basically, it’s a murder mystery set in the fascinating world of Rokugan, involving poisoned rice, a rogue shinobi, a troupe of travelling kabuki players and clan politics.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
JR: Daidoji Shin is our protagonist. A wastrel noble of the Crane Clan, he’s content to idle away his days in illicit pleasures – until a mystery falls in his lap, prompting him to use his keen mind for something other than gambling. He’s accompanied on his investigations by his long-suffering bodyguard, Hiramori Kasami, a samurai of a minor Crane family and the one responsible for keeping Shin on the straight and narrow. Shin does the thinking, Kasami does – well – everything else.
ToW: For anyone who isn’t already familiar with it, how would you describe the Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) world and your take on it?
JR: Rokugan is fascinating. While it has its basis in feudal Japan, it expands on the concept in a number of interesting ways, making for a fantastically developed setting. There’s magic, politics, cosmic horror…really, everything you could ask for in an RPG setting. That said, I stayed away from the magic and the horror for the most part. I wanted to dig into Rokugani society a bit, rather than writing about external threats.
You can also check out David Annandale’s Curse of Honor for more L5R fiction from Aconyte
ToW: Were you already a fan of L5R before writing this, or was it your introduction to the setting?
JR: I was a fan of the setting, though I’d never played it. I’d read a lot of the older material for the game way back when, though I had to catch up on all the changes to the setting since its introduction. Thankfully, I have a number of friends who’ve played it in every incarnation, and I availed myself of their wisdom at every opportunity.
ToW: Crime fiction is always a popular genre, and a lot of your writing does tend to involve at least some sort of mystery. What is it that appeals to you so much about this form of fiction?
JR: I don’t know, really. I just dig it. I’ve always enjoyed detective fiction and crime novels, from Sherlock Holmes to more recent stuff, like Longmire and Virgil Flowers. Perhaps it’s because they’re easy to lose yourself in – mysteries are addictive, and if you’ve got interesting characters unravelling a tricky knot, it makes for a wonderful story. The plot weaves itself, as the detective and the criminal match wits, and while the climax is often a given (what sort of detective doesn’t solve their crime, after all?), it’s the journey that matters.
ToW: What is it about this world of Samurai and courtly politics that made you decide to write a detective story as your first work in it?
JR: I like to make things difficult for myself. I wanted to concentrate on the courtly politics aspect of the setting, but still write something pacey and thrilling, so I decided on a mystery as it gave me room to play with the elements I wanted to play with, while also having a definite plot. Also, Rokugani justice is such that things like evidence and proof mean very little, and I wanted to explore how an investigation into a crime might go in a place where such things are often seen as – at best – a waste of everyone’s time. Can a detective solve a mystery when no one cares about the solution?
ToW: What sort of detective story would you say this is? Is there a recognisable touchstone that would help readers know what to expect?
JR: My touchstones were characters like Lord Peter Wimsey or Albert Campion. There’s a bit of Poirot in there as well. Less hardboiled than, say, Phillip Marlowe or Spenser, and more deductive. The book has that Golden Age mystery tone – the characters spend more time talking in circles around one another than they do fighting, and the crime is less about who died than what it might mean for everyone involved.
ToW: Your main protagonist is described as a ‘slacker aristocrat’ – who or what were your influences when coming up with the character?
JR: My main points of reference were Peter Wimsey and Albert Campion, as mentioned above. Both characters are genial twits on the surface, but coolly precise investigators underneath. I wanted Shin to capture something of that dual nature, without making him too much of a pastiche. I like to think I succeeded, but that’s up for the readers to decide.
ToW: This is billed as “The First Daidoji Shin Mystery”, so I’m assuming there will be more to come. What can you tell us about your plans for future stories?
JR: I hope there’ll be more to come! I’d like to use future books to explore different aspects of Rokugan’s justice system, as well as things like marriage ceremonies, funerary traditions and even the occasional secret society.
ToW: Finally, if you lived in Rokugan, which of the clans do you think you’d want to belong to, and why?
JR: I’d want to belong to the best clan, which is obviously the Crane. Arguments otherwise shall be given all due consideration – which is to say, none. As to why, well, I’ve always had a secret desire to be a politician, and I look fantastic in blue.
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Thanks as always to Josh for taking the time to chat to me about Poison River! I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of this book, and absolutely loved it – here’s my review.
See also: my interview with Josh about his first Aconyte nove, Wrath of N’Kai
See also: my interview with David Annandale about his L5R novel Curse of Honor
If you’re in the UK and would like to support local independent bookshops, you can pre-order Poison River from my store on Bookshop.org*
Alternatively, pre-order Poison River from Amazon*
*If you buy anything using one of these links, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details.
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