The Incense Game

This is the BBC's read this month and I was looking forward to it as this group almost never selects mysteries. I have not read anything by Laura Joh Rowland before but she is obviously a prolific author with 3 series of historical mysteries and 18 in this "Sano Ichiro" series alone.  The series is set in feudal Japan and offers a rich look at what life was like. In spite of some non-stereotypical female characters, they make you glad you were not born a woman then and there. She has won several award nominations for her writing; two made Publishers Weekly "best mysteries of the year" lists (The Cloud Pavilion and The Snow Empress), while The Fire Kimono made WSJ's list of 5 best historical mysteries.
The book opens on the aftermath of a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 1703 which has destroyed most of the city of Edo (today's Tokyo), seat of the shogun's empire. Among the victims were 3 women who were found intact in an incense teacher's house; evidence suggests they were involved in an "incense game" where small packets of incense are burned and the students try to determine what they are.  Moreover, Sano determines the women did not die from the earthquake but were poisoned. As the shogun's Chamberlain, Sano has his hands full trying to help survivors, but two of the dead women are the daughters of a powerful lord who threatens Sano with an overthrow of the shogun if Sano does not find the murderer of his daughters.
There are lots of complicated politics and plot twists, but reading this book without benefit of having read the previous 15 installments led to some noticeable downsides. In particular, there are storylines that carry over from previous novels, which are not well explained. Also there is very little character development in this book, with the author perhaps relying on readers already being familiar with them and their relationships to one another. I am a fan of historical novels and historical mysteries in particular, but I didn't come to care much about these characters in this book.

Review from Publishers Weekly is here.