The Sword That Cut the Burning Grass (The Samurai Detective, #4)

When fourteen-year-old samurai apprentice Seikei is sent on a mission by the shogun, he believes it is a simple one: convince the fourteen-year-old emperor to resume his ceremonial duties. But when the emperor is kidnapped in an elaborate plot to overthrow the shogun, Seikei's task becomes much more complicated--and dangerous. With the help of a servant girl who believes Seikei is the emperor, and a mysterious old man who joins the quest, Seikei finds that he must rescue the emperor before the sacred sword, said to give immense power to anyone who carries it, falls into the wrong hands. Should Seikei fail, bloodshed will stain the land. In this, the fourth book in the Samurai Detective Series, Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler have constructed a thriller that will have the pages turning far into the night.

Tom Hoobler has published more than 90 books, most of them co-authored with his wife Dorothy. A majority of them were aimed at children or young adults. They won an Edgar for the Best Mystery of 2005 for their book, "In Darkness, Death," a mystery set in 18th-century Japan. Their latest book for adults was "The Crimes of Paris: a True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection." It is set in Paris between 1900 and 1914, and one of the crimes described in the book is the theft of the Mona Lisa.