The Cloud Pavilion by Laura Joh Rowland

Sano Ichiru started out as a Ronin who had to find the killers of a man and woman which appeared to be a murder-suicide. In doing so, he came to the notice and attention of the Shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, and he became the Investigator of people, persons and places, or "Sosakan-sama". In that capacity, he tracked down many evildoers and caught them, bringing them to justice. In addition, he got married to a samurai's daughter named Reiko, who is now his wife and mother to his three children. Not only has Sano come far, but he is one of two Chamberlains in Japan, the closest advisors to the Emperor.

But he's not alone in this, for the other chamberlain is his former rival and foe, Yanagisawa. Yanagisawa is coming back from the bottom, when he was banished from the country by the Shogun. But ever since his return from exile, he's been almost friendly with Sano, and seems to hold no grudges on him for their long and contentious history. But even so, Sano doesn't really trust him, and suspects that Yanagisawa is working some sort of plot in secret to bring Sano down.

And it's true that he is, but it's not any kind of armed rebellion like his son Yoritomo wants. Yanagisawa already tried the path of armed rebellion and was brutally slapped down for it. It was the main reason for his exile. But when his son, Yoritomo, tells his father that he is a coward for not seeking immediate revenge on Sano, it sits very wrongly with Yanagisawa. Rebellion was the wrong way, he tells his son- he has a different plan to unseat Sano.

Meanwhile, Sano has been approached by General Kumazawa, a relative of his mother's, who needs Sano's assistance with finding his daughter, Chiyo, who he thinks has been kidnapped. Sano isn't feeling very charitable towards his mother's family, who banished her when she had the temerity to fall in love with the wrong man. With nowhere else to go, she married a masterless Ronin who started his own school teaching swordsmanship, and together they had Sano. But Sano only found out what happened to his mother recently, and he still feels upset towards his maternal relations.

And yet, he cannot leave an innocent young woman to die, or refuse to find her kidnappers and killers, if she has been killed- it simply isn't in him to do that, even for someone who he despises, and so he and his troops go in search of Chiyo near the temple where she disappeared. Luckily, and despite his uncle's interference, he manages to find Chiyo and return her to her family house still alive, but she has been raped and violated, something that means that her husband will cast her off as soon as he finds out when he discovers she has been raped. But not only does he divorce her, he also takes her children away from her, leaving her hopeless and depressed.

But in the course of the investigation, Sano's friend and colleague Hirata discovers that Chiyo is not the only woman who had this happen to her. And elderly Buddhist nun named Tengu-in was snatched from near a temple when she sought to chaperone some young nuns, and Fumiko, the 12-year old daughter of a Yakuza named Jirocho were also kidnapped and volated. Sano and Hirata visit the women, but can gain no information- Tengu-in has been praying nonstop since her attack and will not rouse to speak to anyone, and Jirocho has thrown Fumiko out of his house for the same reason that Chiyo's husband renounced her- because she is no longer pure.

All Chiyo remembers is the sound of rain and of being violated by a man who was masked like the Clouds amidst a cloud pavillion. Reiko visits her, hoping that a purely female touch may help and gets a few more bits of information, then tracks down Fumiko and questions her as well, to receive the same sort of tale. All she can remember of note is that the man who violated her had a mole on his penis.

Sano is able to find out two men, Ox-cart handlers, who were seen in the neighborhood at the time of the incidents, and tracks them down in the city, but neither one will admit to kidnapping or violating the women. Sano doesn't have enough evidence to convict them, so he decides to let them go... for now. But the policemen he details to tail them lose them in the midst of Tokyo, and he is forced to track down one of their employers, and the three men he hired them out to do... odd jobs for them.

With these three names, Sano and Hirata track down the owners of the names. One, Ogita, is a powerful and wealthy merchant. another, Nanbu, is the Shogun's dogcatcher, charged with keeping the city of Tokyo from being overrun and terrorized by stray and feral gogs. The last, Joju, is a priest who makes his living as an exorcist. But all deny that they are to blame for the rapes, and there isn't enough evidence to charge any of them.

As Sano investigates the crimes, he must also deal with the actions of his eldest son, Masahiro, who has every intention of following in his father's footsteps and becoming a detective. He decides to start his career by following Yanagisawa tp a meeting with three young women. There, he is discovered by the Shogun's chief spy, Toda Ikkyu, who is following Yanagisawa for Sano. Toda returns him to his family, and Sano and Reiko are very upset with him, and detail their retainers to keep Masahiro at home. But when circumstances lead to Masahiro getting out of his house by pure chance, he can't help but follow Yanagisawa again. Only, when the Shogun's wife disappears from her home, can Sano figure out who has taken her and finally solve the case of the kidnapped and violated women or will he lose his position as a result of the Shogun's pique? What is Yanagisawa's cunning plan to bring down Sano, and can Sano act in time to prevent it?

I love this series, though in some aspects I am not sure how completely accurate it is with regards to the Tokyo police in the time of the 1600s or so. Some of the things that happen with regards to the police and Sano seem almost modern (undercover police officers as opposed to spies- even though spies do exist and are used), while others, like Ninja, are completely missing from the books in this series that I have read.

After having read so many of these books, the reader begins to think like Sano. Yanagisawa being nice to him just doesn't seem right. and indeed, he turns out to be very much right. We get to see more of the twistedness of Yanagisawa, who is willing to sell his favorite son into a loveless marriage merely to be able to put him on the throne of Japan and further persecute Sano. And actually, Yanagisawa is based on a real-life advisor to Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, but needless to say, both his life and that of the emperor are heavily fictionized for the series.

And yet the series is truly excellent. Each book brings us more information about both Japan and the people who live in it. Here we get to see more of the underworld of the Japanese. And even though I characterize Jirocho as a Yakuza, he doesn't actually get labelled as such in the story. It's more of an understanding based on the words of his followers, and the tradition of yubitsume, or cutting off the fingers or joints of fingers in penance for doing wrong, a Yakuza tradition.. But the novel isn't focused around Yakuza, just that one of the characters is.

In any case, this is another fascinating mystery for Sano to solve, and is setting up conflicts to come, both with Sano, who has now lost his high position and returned to being Sosakan-Sama at the end, and with Hirata, who is being stalked by a foe with strong mystical and mental powers. Highly recommended.