The Killer on the Streets

The Samurai Detectives: Volume 2

RETURN TO THE WORLD OF THE SAMURAI DETECTIVES, THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLING SERIES OF THRILLING ADVENTURE AND INSCRUTABLE MYSTERY 
 
In the months since their last perilous quest, a fragile calm has settled over Edo. Daijiro dedicates his days to training the first pupil of his quiet riverside dojo, while his father Kohei – a famed swordsman whose name still inspires awe – drifts through an uneasy retirement, his razor-sharp mind too restless for leisure. But such peace never lasts long in the shogunate. 
 
One chill autumn night, Kohei is set upon by a band of tsujigiri – lawless ‘street slashers’ who test their blades on the innocent. To his astonishment, the gang’s leader proves to be no mere rogue, but in fact one of the most important officials in the land. What begins as a chance encounter soon blooms into a deadly game of pursuit, vengeance and, finally, siege, as father and son are dragged into the city’s pitch-black heart. Other adventures soon follow, including the task of bringing to justice their most evil adversary yet, a villain of monstrous proportions . . . 
 
The second instalment in Shotaro Ikenami’s bestselling historical fiction series, The Samurai Detectives: The Killer on the Streets is a perfectly coiled mystery as well as a profound portrait of honour and justice in the twilight of the Shogun’s world.

Shotaro Ikenami (Author) 
Shotaro Ikenami (1923 – 1990) was a bestselling Japanese author famed for his multi-million copy selling series of historical fiction novels. Over his lifetime, he won the Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Award and Naoki Award for popular literature. Over a dozen of his works were adapted for film and television, and his work remains exceptionally popular in Japan. 
 
Yui Kajita (Translator) 
Yui Kajita is a translator , illustrator and literary scholar, originally from Kyoto, Japan, and currently based in Germany.

Shotaro Ikenami

Yui Kajita

It has been half a year since Akiyama Daijiro became a samurai; half a year since he left his father Kohei – the wisest swordsman in the land – to set up his own blade school by the cool of the river. Ever since, amid the swaying bamboo groves, he waits patiently for his first disciple.But his serenity is soon disrupted by the visit of a mysterious samurai with an unhonourable offer: in exchange for a vast sum of gold, he must attack and injure the daughter of the Shogun’s most senior counsellor. Troubled by the proposal, Daijiro, alongside his father and Mifuyu, a female warrior without match, soon set out into the underworld of Edo-era Japan to uncover the conspiracy, before quickly finding themselves embroiled in a series of increasingly perilous adventures . . .Widely considered to be the greatest work by Shotaro Ikenami, the master of Japanese historical fiction, The Samurai Detectives is a twisting, page-turning portrayal of one of the most intriguing, evocative periods in the history of Japan.

Shotaro Ikenami

Books by Shotaro Ikenami

Series by Shotaro Ikenami

The Samurai Detectives

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