SENSEI, by John Donohue. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 258 pp., 2004, $23.95 (cloth).
For the ninth time since his 1994 debut in "Shinju," Sano Ichiro ("the shogun's most honorable investigator of events, situations and people") is back pounding the streets of 17th-century Edo, tracking down yet another murderer.
"The Perfumed Sleeve" is set in 1694, the seventh year of the Genroku Era (1688-1703), when Japan was led by Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, a consummate eccentric remembered as the "Dog Shogun" for his strict edicts to protect stray canines.
Laura Joh Rowland portrays Tsunayoshi as a dithering fool, completely manipulated by his chamberlain Yanagisawa, a ruthless schemer who also happens to be Tsunayoshi's homosexual lover, and who has entertained a visceral hatred for the upright Sano since the series began.