Laura Joh Rowland (born 1953) is an American detective/mystery author best known for her series of historical mystery novels featuring protagonist Sano Ichirō (佐野 一郎) set in feudal Japan, mostly in Edo during the late 17th century.
[1] She tried a number of careers after college, including chemist, microbiologist, quality engineer with Lockheed Martin, and freelance illustrator, but it wasn't until she took a writing course that she found her calling.
After his arranged marriage at the start of the fourth novel to Ueda Reiko (上田 麗子), he also has to deal with her non-traditional attitude as she frequently involves herself in Sano's investigations.
Rowland takes some literary license with known figures, creating fictionalized versions of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Emperor Higashiyama in The Samurai's Wife, and Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu.
"[3] Laura Picker, writing for Publishers Weekly, noted, "As with all successful historicals, Rowland's Sano novels blend painstaking research with characters whose personalities and inner struggles engage the reader.
"[2] Lane Wright, reviewing the sixth Sano novel Black Lotus, commented, "There is no one better at the esthetic detail than Laura Joh Rowland.
She realistically brings to life 17th century Japan from the couple who owns the noodle shop, to the jail, to the court of the inept shogun and his elderly, eccentric mother.
"[6] Judith Reveal reviewed the third Victorian mystery The Hangman's Secret for New York Journal of Books, and thought it was "initially a slow read, primarily because [Rowland] chose first person present tense as her point of view, and that gives the writing a staccato, clunky feel."