Dale Furutani

Dale Furutani writes mysteries that connect investigation with Japanese and Japanese American history. Jade Palace Vendetta occupies the second position in his Matsuyama Kaze samurai trilogy; William Morrow brought it out in 1999. Traveling the Tokaido Road in 1603 while searching for his late lord's kidnapped daughter, the masterless samurai Kaze rescues a wealthy merchant and accepts work as his bodyguard, only to uncover the secrets surrounding the merchant's Kamakura household. Agguato all’incrocio is the Italian title of Death at the Crossroads, the trilogy's opening novel. Marcos y Marcos published Erika Bianchi's Italian translation in 2007. That mystery begins when Kaze finds a man killed by an arrow at a rural crossroads and challenges the convenient accusation against a charcoal seller. Furutani's earlier Death in Little Tokyo won both Anthony and Macavity awards, making him the first Asian American to receive a major mystery-writing award. His Kaze novels pair detective structure with careful rendering of Tokugawa-era social obligations.