Focus is the BBC’s science and technology monthly magazine. Jargon-free and accessible, you don’t need a PhD in particle physics to enjoy reading it. All you need is a quizzical mind that wants to understand the world around you, and gain a fact or two to keep up your sleeve in a pub quiz emergency.
In Rowland's ninth absorbing historical set in 17th-century Japan (after 2003's The Dragon King's Palace), Sano Ichiro, the shogun's special criminal investigator, must once again navigate treacherous political waters to solve a puzzling murder. Sano finds himself retained by a corpse when the valet of one of the country's leading figures, councilman Makino Narisada, delivers a posthumous request from his master. Narisada asks Sano to examine the circumstances of his own death.
