Bad News! - Akitada Murdered!

This is indeed bad news. Suguwara Akitada, sleuth from Ancient Japan, is one of my very favorite series characters and now he's lost his publishing home. A gentle soul with real-life problems like a leaky roof or annoying family relations as opposed to the cliched addictions and gambling debts too many PIs seem to share. Maybe that's what killed the series. Maybe Akitada needs to shave his head into a Mohawk, sport a tattoo on his neck and an earring through his nose. Maybe he needs to get hooked on opium. And ride a Harley...

Ah well, IJ Parker promises to try to get a couple more novels into print by hook or by crook. Sad that it has come to this - a talented writer scrabbling. Yes, it's always been this way. No less sad because of it.