The Hell Screen

by I.J. Parker

Book Overview

A tangled web of deceit strikes very close to home in this new mystery of ancient Japan featuring Sugawara Akitada Eleventh-century Japan is the expertly realized setting for I. J. Parker's ingenious mystery series featuring sleuth Sugawara Akitada. In The Hell Screen , Akitada is on his way to the bedside of his dying mother when bad weather forces him to take refuge in a temple whose central treasure is a brilliantly painted hell screen. Perhaps...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143035622
• ISBN13: 9780143035626
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 415 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

The is A Re-release of Book 2 in the Series

This is book #2 in the series. I.J. Parker does a great job of invoking ancient Japan with a plot thats drives the reader through to the end. I've thoroughly enjoyed the series but was somewhat surprised that book #2 was re-released. Hopefully this doesn't spell the end to the series. Highly recommend to those who love Japan and historic mysteries. Sugawa is a very likable character that grows throughout the series.

Absolutely Excellent - Parker's Best Thus Far

It's November 27, I've got Parker's fourth Sugawara novel "Black Arrow" on preorder, and I'm consumed with a thoroughly bizarre impulse to strangle my calendar. "Black Arrow" won't be released until the 28th, you see, and I finished "The Hell Screen" just a couple of days ago. I would read it well into the wee hours to the point of mental and physical exhaustion (I know exactly how Sugawara felt when he first saw the Hell Screen,) then tear home the following afternoon to continue, craving the people and places in it like food, or maybe like air. In "The Hell Screen" Parker rebounds mightily from the less-compelling work "Dragon Scroll" and surpasses her brilliant debut, "Rashomon Gate." The plotting is ingenious, the characterization continues to be spectacular, and her continued theme - the frequent cruelty of a rigid caste system - is often intensely dramatized but always artful and understated, never overpowering the story as a whole. The character development of the principles - Akitada and his family, Kobe, Tora and Seimei - gets much deeper and richer here without getting the slightest bit overlabored; the supporting characters are the most vivid and memorable I've encountered since those of...dare I make the comparison...J.K. Rowling. I've only just now unraveled my confusion as to Parker's sequencing of the Sugawara novels, thanks to a kind tip by reviewer Mary Whipple: she isn't writing them in chronological order. "The Dragon Scroll" is first chronologically, followed by "Rashomon Gate," then "The Hell Screen" - but Parker wrote (or at least published,) "Rashomon" first, then "Hell Screen," then "Dragon Scroll." In a way this is refreshing. Devouring them out of chronological order evokes a sense of making individual forays into a world of the past, like separate trips in a time machine. I suspect it will also prevent Parker's books from falling into that trap of "bigger and better than last time," something some other series exhibit to the point of tedium. As in my review of "Rashomon Gate," I sincerely hope Ms. Parker makes this an enormous series, because it's been a long while since I've enjoyed a series of novels so thoroughly. "The Hell Screen" is flawless and the best so far - Bravo! 'Scuse me now while I wrestle with that #!% & @*! calendar...

"That which seems real in the world of men is but a dream and a deception"

This is I. J. Parker's second novel set in 11th Century Heian Japan. As is always the case in Japanese culture, the politics of the time were extremely complex. Small missteps could quickly turn into personal disasters. Such has been the case for Sugawara Akitada, who was sent from the capital in disgrace to a position as provisional governor of a distant province. Unexpectedly successful, Sugawara has been allowed to return to the royal presence. He is traveling back with his family and retinue when a messenger intercepts them with news that Akitada's mother is in her final illness. Rushing back, Sugawara spends the night at a monastery and inadvertently overhears a murder. Back in the capital, Sugawara finds his house in disarray - his mother, even dying, tries her son's patience with her constant criticism and the abuse of his sister Yoshiko, who has remained unmarried in order to care for her mother. Adding to the complication, the husband of Sugawara's other sister is suspected of stealing from the royal treasury and asks for his help. One thing leads to another, and Sugawara realizes that the screams he heard in the monastery are connected somehow to the mysteries confronting him in Tokyo. It seems that Sugawara has little hope of enjoying the fruits of his success in Eichigo province. Parker is an excellent writer and fills her pages with a complicated story of murder and insanity. Always taking the time to share the details of life in a city that was one of the most sophisticated of its time. Comparisons with Laura Joh Rowland are inevitable, and it is this depth of detail that keeps Parker from simply being a copycat. Rowland's forte is her character development. Thus both authors have much to offer in mystery stories set some 600 years apart. In either case the reader is treated to a good mystery story, strong writing, and everything a Japanophile could ever want.

Ms. James does it again!

At a temple outside Heian Kyo, the wife of a wealthy antique dealer is found, brutally murdered, in the room of her brother-in-law, who is immediately arrested for murder. He claims he did not do it, but he has no remembrance of the evening at all. Akitada is just returning to Heian Kyo from several years as a provincial governor, and present the temple on the night of the murder. He hears a woman scream that evening, but it is not until several days later that he learns of the crime. Despite Inspector Kobe's reluctance, Akitada turns his deductive skills to the case, while also trying to remove his own brother-in-law out of a bit of a potentially ruining situation. Meanwhile, Akitada's servant, the womanizing Tora, decides to prove his deductive prowess, and find "the slasher" that is mutilating women in the Pleasure Quarters. He has seen the slasher's work and is determined to stop him. As with the first Akitada novel, there is a lot going on. But, Ms. Parker pulls it off with style and intelligence. The descriptions of eleventh-century Japan are detailed, and yet casual so that the reader doesn't feel that history is being pushed down the throat. Akitada and his friends and family are convincingly real and the plot is credible. On the whole, this five star mystery is a worthy successor to (also five star) Rashomon Gate and Ms. Parker keeps rising in my esteem as a gifted author.

strong amateur sleuth eleventh century Japanese mystery

With his mother ill and perhaps dying, government clerk Akitada Sugawara returns home from the provincial north to Edo. Some things never change in Akitada' mind as his rancorous mother rips his skin off from almost the moment he arrives. However, Akitada has bigger problems than surviving the acrimonious Lady S. His sisters turn to Akitada for help. His older sister's husband is accused of stealing government treasures. His other sister loves Kojiro, a landowner whose social standing is beneath that of the noble Sugawara, making him unsuitable for her. However, worse yet is his sibling pleads with him to help Kojiro, a prime suspect of police inspector Kobe in his investigation of a vicious murder.THE HELL SCREEN is a strong amateur sleuth eleventh century Japanese mystery that will provide plenty of entertainment for those readers who enjoy something different. Akitada is a strong detective following clues in a methodical manner. It is interesting to notice the contrast between Akitada is Kobe, who resents his rival and prefers fast solutions whether he catches the right culprit or not. This is a strong tale rich with eleventh century Japanese culture though at times the "formal" dialogue feels like a certain female sumo wrestler ran over the reader.Harriet Klausner