The daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko has long known her place. She may be an accomplished alchemist, whose cunning rivals that of her twin brother Kenshin, but because she is not a boy, her future has always been out of her hands.

It is the Year of the Wood Dragon, and the ingenious Mike Brink has been invited to Tokyo, Japan, to open the legendary Dragon Box. The box was constructed during one of Japan's most tumultuous periods, when the samurai class was disbanded and the shogun lost power. In this moment of crisis, Emperor Meiji locked a priceless Imperial secret in the Dragon Box. Only two people knew how to open the box--Meiji and the box's sadistic constructor--and both...

A bold English adventurer. An invincible Japanese warlord. A beautiful woman torn between two ways of life, two ways of love. All brought together in an extraordinary saga of a time and a place aflame with conflict, passion, ambition, lust, and the struggle for power...

"Amid the ever-treacherous intrigue in the court, Sano Ichirō has been demoted from chamberlain to a lowly patrol guard. His relationship with his wife Reiko is in tatters, and a bizarre new alliance between his two enemies Yanagisawa and Ienobu has left him bewildered and wary. Yet Sano's dedication to the way of the warrior--the samurai code of honor--is undiminished. Then a harrowing, almost inconceivable crime takes place"-- Provided by publisher....

In the aftermath of a woman's brutal attack in 1701 Japan, samurai detective turned chamberlain Sano Ichiro suspects the true motives of a formerly exiled rival who has been oddly cooperative, a situation that is further complicated by a relative's disappearance.

"In a feudal Japan where creatures of myth and folklore are real, a demon sets out to reforge an ancient weapon to take over the world. The only person who can stop him is a six-inch-tall would-be samurai, who also happens to be the final and most important piece of the weapon"--Back cover.

Brody encounters a ghostly teenage girl who needs his help hunting down a dangerous killer and he must undergo training from the spirit of a centuries-old samurai to unlock his hidden power to communicate with ghosts.