Series:

A Connor Burke Martial Arts Thriller

3 total works

Cover of Deshi

Deshi

by John Donohue

Published 1 February 2005
In each life, the wheel of karma turns. Martial artist Connor Burke, who continues to labour under the stern tutelage of Yamashita Sensei, is drawn into a murder investigation involving a mysterious martial arts master named Kita Takanobu who has created a powerful new age synthesis of Tibetan mysticism and the lethal heritage of the samurai. The trail of blood ultimately leads to the Yamaji, Kita's elite mountain temple, where Burke will face his deadliest challenge ever.

Cover of Sensei

Sensei

by John Donohue

Published 9 April 2003

A modern-day ronin is traveling across the country systematically murdering martial arts masters in ritualized combat. Connor Burke is a part-time college teacher with a passion for the martial arts. His brother Micky, an NYPD detective, calls him in to help with the investigation. Connor calls for additional help from his teacher, master warrior Yamashita Sensei. Burke begins to follow the trail of clues that stretches across time and place, ultimately confronting his own fears, his sense of honor, and the ruthless killer who calls himself Ronin.

Combining the exotic wolrd of the Japanese martial arts with the gritty nuts-and-bolts of a murder investigation, Sensei is a fast-paced, riveting thriller that explores the links between people as they struggle for mastery, identity, and a sense of belonging.

Cover of Tengu

Tengu

by John Donohue

Published 13 November 2008
Silver Finalist - 2009 Benjamin Franklin Award. Mystery/SuspenseFinalist - 2008 Book of the Year Award by ForeWord MagazineFinalist - 2008 USA Best Book Award [Japan] An intelligence analyst is murdered on temple grounds. [Manila] Two embassy guards go missing and a bizarre execution video is discovered by a special-forces team. [New York] Martial arts expert Connor Burke is hired as a consultant for an elite US Army training program. [Mindanao Philippines] A young Japanese ethnographer from Harvard University is kidnapped by a terrorist cell of Abu Sayeff. A renegade martial arts Sensei known as the Tengu has been recruited to train a splinter group of Asian terrorists with links to Al Qaeda. The Tengu mourns the vanished prestige and cultural heritage of Imperial Japan. He, like the men he trains, believes the West is responsible for destroying the spiritual essence of a once-great culture.
In a series of violent clashes spawned by the bizarre intersection of contemporary fundamentalist terrorist ideology and the personal vendettas of the Tengu, Connor Burke and his martial arts teacher Yamashita are pawns in a game that will ensnare them while they search for the most deadly of foes: the Tengu.