Trial on Mount Koya
A Hiro Hattori Novel
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4.4 • 11 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Master ninja Hiro Hattori and Jesuit Father Mateo head up to Mount Koya, only to find themselves embroiled in yet another mystery, this time in a Shingon Buddhist temple atop one of Japan's most sacred peaks. November, 1565: Master ninja Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo travel to a Buddhist temple at the summit of Mount Koya, carrying a secret message for an Iga spy posing as a priest on the sacred mountain. When a snowstorm strikes the peak, a killer begins murdering the temple's priests and posing them as Buddhist judges of the afterlife--the Kings of Hell. Hiro and Father Mateo must unravel the mystery before the remaining priests--including Father Mateo--become unwilling members of the killer's grisly council of the dead.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Spann cleverly riffs on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None in her sixth novel set in 16th-century Japan (after 2017's Betrayal at Iga). Hiro Hattori, a ninja assassin "hired by an unknown benefactor" to guard a Portuguese Catholic priest, journeys with his charge, Fr. Mateo vila de Santos, to the remote Buddhist temple of Myo-in at the summit of Mount Koya to deliver an important message to Ringa, a spy for Hiro's clan, the Iga. Ringa winds up murdered, his body posed such that it appears he was wearing a crown of flame and was clutching a sword in one hand and a rope in the other. The setup is intended to make the dead man resemble the god Fudo Myo-o. More residents of Myo-in die in bizarre ways before Hiro and Mateo uncover the surprising truth behind the killings. Spann has never been better at balancing mystery with the politics of the era, and this improvement signals a brighter future for the series.
