Sugawara Akitada must venture into the pit of hell on an island of the damned

When the exiled Prince Okisada, the most illustrious prisoner of the penal colony on Sado Island, is poisoned, Sugawara Akitada is called upon by the emperor's envoys to investigate incognito. The accused murderer is the son of the governor of the island, but Akitada suspects greater treachery. Posing as a prisoner, Akitada discovers a deadly conspiracy, only to fall into the hands of brutal guards and disappear. It falls to Tora, Akitada's devoted assistant, to begin his own dangerous search of the island for his lost friend and the truth.

"Parker has created a wonderful protagonist in Akitada." --The Boston Globe
 
"Deftly combines an action-packed plot with convincing period detail to bring eleventh-century Japan to life." --Publishers Weekly


From the Compact Disc edition.

An exiled prince is murdered while serving his term in the dreaded penal colony on Sado, the Island of Exiles. Our hero, Sugawara Akitada, must pose as a prisoner himself to get to the bottom of the crime. Sounds like a good premise, and it may be a good read (despite the rampant use of anachronistic clichés), but Roy Vongtama does little to engage, enthrall, or entertain. His Japanese accents are so downright cartoonish (sometimes offensively so) that the main character, the handsome, daring, and honorable Akitada, sounds more like he's from Hollywood than ancient Japan. Unfortunately, Vongtama reads with the air of an inexperienced narrator and treats the text with an artsy aloofness that undermines the potential of the story. It's a real shame too--this one looked so good. A.A. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

 

Island of Exiles by I.J. Parker
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