It is a lost art, passed down by the ancients in great secrecy: Dim-mak. It is death, by the lightest touch of a finger. Sano Ichiro, tenuous in the new regime as the shogun's second-in-command, does not have the luxury of scepticism - another senior official is dead, a fingerprint lightly glazed into his skin. Sano's wife Reiko has an investigation of her own: a beautiful, proud, and hopelessly poor woman has confessed to murdering her family. Yet the pieces do not fit, and as Reiko looks deeper into the woman's life as a hinin - a moral outcast, shunned by the world - inexplicable connections appear between her investigation and Sano's. As Reiko's questions spiral her further into the squalor of life as a hinin, Sano and Hirata - his most loyal samurai - pursue their prey, uncovering an intricate tapestry of betrayal woven into the highest levels of the new regime. But they are no match for the one who has mastered dim-mak, a warrior who will strike all those who cross him or his path - even Reiko.
- ISBN13 9780312992095
- Publish Date 31 October 2006 (first published 1 August 2005)
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 11 March 2010
- Publish Country US
- Imprint St Martin's Press
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 368
- Language English