“You’ll think of a way around him when the time comes,” Reiko assured Sano, then smiled. “What we can both look forward to is our next investigation.”

They joined hands across their sleeping child. Icy raindrops pelted the roof while they drowsed, safe together, strong in their confident belief that they could brave whatever the future held.

Laura Joh Rowland is a detective/mystery author best known for her series of mystery novels set in the late days of feudal Japan, mostly in Edo during the late 1600s. Rowland takes some licence with known figures, creating fictionalised versions of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi and Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu. Objective historical details, however, are credibly accurate.