After 2020’s fantastic Legend of the Five Rings novel Poison River, Josh Reynolds returns with the second ‘Daidoji Shin Mystery’ – Death’s Kiss, from Aconyte Books. Set a few months after the events of the first book, it finds Shin busy overseeing the renovation of the Foxfire Theatre, having purchased it for himself apparently out of boredom. When a friend in the Unicorn clan asks him to look into a murder in the mountain city of Hisatu-Kesu, Shin puts aside the work of managing the theatre’s finances and, accompanied as always by the long-suffering Kisami, sets out to investigate. The closer Shin looks into what seems on the surface to be a straightforward case, the more he comes to understand the political tensions in Hisatu-Kesu, and what the consequences could be if proceedings aren’t handled with care.
Shin’s life seems to be one endless attempt to stave off boredom, so while Kasami grumbles about his recklessness and local magistrate Batu – with whom Shin has an interesting history – despairs at his cavalier attitude towards politics and etiquette, he seems content to exercise his mind by working through the puzzle before him. For all his seemingly carefree attitude though, he understands what’s at stake. With the murder suspect in custody, in theory Rokugani justice is clear – a clanless ronin murdered a samurai from a prestigious family, so the punishment should be death. Never one to accept an obvious answer though, and with an eye on the strained politics of Hisatu-Kesu, Shin refuses to take the easy way out and instead digs into what lies behind the murder and who might benefit from it – much to the irritation of almost everyone else involved.
With the main characters already established there’s plenty of time to dig into some of what makes Rokugan such an interesting story setting, which in this case involves Shin’s exploration of a new city, and an emphasis on the justice system (such as it is) and its heavy weighting towards the noble classes. As this is Shin doing the exploration, he ends up blithely overturning cultural norms, subtly (or sometimes not subtly in the slightest) insulting fellow samurai and generally poking his nose where people would prefer he didn’t, all of which is entertaining and often drily hilarious. Hisatu-Kesu is a bit less cosmopolitan than the City of the Rich Frog, but the competing families who (supposedly) share its resources – not to mention a secretive cabal of troublemakers – make for a suitably tangled mixing pot of alliances and grudges. At times it’s a little tricky to keep track of the various families, who belongs to which one and what their goals are, but with a little patience it all makes sense and wraps up in an enjoyably satisfying way.
In a sense this is more of the same as Poison River – gentle verbal sparring between Shin and Kasami, an investigation consisting largely of pointed conversations with nobles desperate to manoeuvre events in their favour (most of whom find Shin deeply frustrating), and lots of sharp dialogue interspersed with occasional bursts of breathless action. When the characters are this good though, the dialogue this much fun and the setting this well depicted, more of the same is exactly what’s needed, and the familiarity only adds to the enjoyment of a story like this. It’s all relatively quiet and sedate, in keeping with its Golden Age influences, and there’s something nice about the juxtaposition of the comfortable, familiar pace and plot alongside the evocative fantasy world of Rokugan. Look elsewhere for a pacy, modern thrill-ride or a magic-laden fantasy adventure – but if you enjoyed Poison River, or you just fancy a wry and witty detective story, this is definitely worth investigating. Here’s hoping there’s plenty more from Shin and Kasami still to come!
Many thanks to Aconyte Books and Josh Reynolds for providing me with an advance copy of Death’s Kiss in exchange for my honest review.
See also: my interview with Josh Reynolds talking about Death’s Kiss.
See also: all the other Legend of the Five Rings-related reviews and interviews on Track of Words.
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