Rating: 
Summary: Another goodie by Mrs. Rowland!
Review: What I want to know is why are some of these reviewers panning this book because it contains sexual abuse and acts? The title of this book is "The CONCUBINE'S Tattoo" for crissakes! What do you expect to read from a book involving CONCUBINES? You don't see people innocently renting the the movie "Die Hard" and then turn around and slam it only because it contains violence, do you? And about the child abuse, we can't deny that sick and twisted acts such as this happen and weren't questioned in those days. Touchy subjects such as child abuse, racism, and violence shouldn't be censored from, nor require some ridiculous warning labels for books that are catered to mature readers in the first place. Just stop reading if you are that sensitive to such issues. Now that I got that out of the way, I just want to say how much I love Rowland's work. She's one of those authors who's work I would pick up from the shelf just because her name is on it! I don't know if every historical account in this book is accurate (and I don't care because if I were searching for accuracy, I would go to a nonfictional history book), but it is certainly fun to read a mystery that doesn't take place in cliche' moderen day streets of Manhattan/Los Angeles/any trendy city. Why didn't I give it five stars? I felt that the previous books "Shinju" and "Bundori" were a lot stronger and rank surpreme to "The Concubine's Tattoo". Also, I miss Sano's previous love interest, Aoi. I can't wait to see what that lowdown slime of a villian, Chamberlain Yanagisawa is going to do next to my favorite detective in the upcoming "The Samurai's Wife". I will be first in line for that one!
Rating:
Summary: Could be better
Review: When I saw that Laura Joh Rowland had written another book about my favorite Samurai detective, I could not wait for the paperback edition!As always, I didn't get disappointed by the plot, by the scenario or by the characters. I just loved the book! The reason why I didn't give it 5 stars is because I felt shocked by the unnecessarily crude and sordid sexual descriptions. I am not a puritan, but I have my limits.
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