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Author

Laura Joh Rowland

25 fiction

Laura Joh Rowland is an American author of historical mysteries whose fiction spans feudal Japan and Victorian Britain. She holds degrees in science and public health from the University of Michigan and previously worked as an aerospace scientist before becoming a full-time novelist. She is also a painter and comics artist and lives in New York City.

Rowland is best known for the Sano Ichiro series, beginning with Shinju, which follows a samurai investigator serving the Tokugawa shogunate in seventeenth-century Japan. The novels combine murder investigations with court politics, factional rivalry, family conflict and the rigid social obligations of samurai society. She has also written historical suspense novels featuring Charlotte Brontë and the Sarah Bain mysteries, centred on a photographer investigating crimes in Victorian London. Her work has been published internationally and has received nominations and recognition from several major mystery organisations and publications.

Periods and events

Tokugawa Period1603–1868 CE Victorian Crime1837–1901 Victorian Spiritualism and Psychical Culturec. 1850–1901

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Laura Joh Rowland (2 series)

Sano Ichiro Novels in Order

by Laura Joh Rowland 18 books 4.0(29,353)

The Sano Ichiro novels follow a samurai investigator serving Tokugawa Tsunayoshi from 1689 to 1709. Beginning with Shinju, Sano repeatedly places evidence and personal conscience against orders designed to protect status. His work moves from Edo Castle and the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter to Nagasaki, Kyoto and Japan’s northern…

1. Shinju

First published 1994 · 3.9(4,588)

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2. Bundori

First published 1996 · 4.0(2,674)

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3. The Way of the Traitor

First published 1997 · 4.0(2,064)

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4. The Concubine’s Tattoo

First published 1998 · 3.9(2,494)

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5. The Samurai’s Wife

First published 2000 · 4.0(2,129)

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6. Black Lotus

First published 2001 · 3.9(1,784)

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7. The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria

First published 2002 · 4.0(1,634)

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8. The Dragon King’s Palace

First published 2003 · 3.9(1,486)

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9. The Perfumed Sleeve

First published 2004 · 4.0(1,413)

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10. The Assassin’s Touch

First published 2005 · 3.9(1,058)

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11. Red Chrysanthemum

First published 2006 · 4.0(1,116)

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12. The Snow Empress

First published 2007 · 3.8(1,378)

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13. The Fire Kimono

First published 2008 · 4.0(1,192)

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14. The Cloud Pavilion

First published 2009 · 4.0(966)

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15. The Ronin’s Mistress

First published 2011 · 4.1(954)

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16. The Incense Game

First published 2012 · 4.0(1,005)

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17. The Shogun’s Daughter

First published 2013 · 3.9(1,024)

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18. The Iris Fan

First published 2014 · 4.3(394)

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Victorian Mysteries in Order

by Laura Joh Rowland 7 books 3.9(8,185)

The Victorian Mysteries follow photographer Sarah Bain and her unconventional investigative partners through London from the Whitechapel murders of 1888 to the Thames torso case of 1891. Sarah’s camera gives the group access to crime scenes and evidence at a time when forensic photography, popular newspapers and criminal…

1. The Ripper’s Shadow

First published 2017 · 3.7(2,320)

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2. A Mortal Likeness

First published 2018 · 3.8(1,165)

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3. The Hangman’s Secret

First published 2019 · 3.9(1,268)

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4. The Woman in the Veil

First published 2020 · 3.9(1,287)

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5. Portrait of Peril

First published 2021 · 3.9(950)

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6. Garden of Sins

First published 2022 · 4.0(792)

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7. River of Fallen Angels

First published 2023 · 4.0(403)

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