A Change Of Setting Can Be Enough Sometimes

That day I took off last week involved, among other things, getting to visit with my dad. Which gave me the opportunity to loan him some books, and borrow some, too. Having finished the first book last night, it's time to discuss Shinju, by Laura Joh Rowland.

It's a murder mystery, with a newly appointed investigator unwilling to go along with the official explanation, and the difficulties that come along with that decision. In that regard, it's much like any number of other mysteries of my dad's I've borrowed over the years. The difference is this one's set in 17th Century Japan, which means there are some differences in the resources available, but more critically, in the culture the story takes place in.

Sano Ichiro is a newly appointed yoriki, still trying to find his way in the job. He has a hard time accepting that he's supposed to stay behind a desk and sign reports, and his earlier employment as a tutor and historian makes him naturally inquisitive. So he's not inclined to simply accept the official explanation that the daughter of a powerful family committed shinju (double suicide, where the couple tie themselves together and jump in the river) with her lowly artist lover. So he deals with the typical stonewalling from the heads of the powerful family, as well as his politically connected superior. There are more murders, cover-ups, people being relieved of their positions, all the sorts of things you see in many other such stories.

The key, for me, was the difference that comes with the culture's focus on honor, duty, to a person family, their superiors, and so on. Usually, the detective in these stories is the type that has nothing else in their life except the job, and so they do it well for lack of anything else*. Sano doesn't want to be a yoriki. He liked being a tutor, and helping teach at his father's martial arts academy. He's there because a powerful family owed his family a debt from the warring era which preceded the Tokugawas assuming control of the country, and his father called in that favor. Pops wants more for Sano, and Sano has to honor his father's wishes. So the situation presents him with the choice of pursuing what he believes is the truth, and running the risk of losing the position, and disgracing himself, and by extension, his father. He's faced with a decision where his training says the way to spare his family greater dishonor is seppuku, and he considers it, but part of him still wants to learn the truth, and stop the murderer. Thus, more struggle.

I feel like it was an error to let us know right from the start that it was definitely a murder, and not an actual shinju. Sano struggles with that doubt off and on, along with the doubt about whether pursuing this is worth the loss, but the reader knows he's right all along. I think it limits our ability to empathize with his inner conflicts, because we know he's right to keep digging, there is something there.

If you aren't a murder mystery fan, or you've read a lot of them and are burned out, probably not gonna be your cup of tea. If you are in the mood for one, and you'd like a different setting from the usual, this could be a book for you.

* Or they have nothing else in their life because of how seriously they take their work.