By:
David Gutterson
Grade Level:
The beginning of the novel lands the reader in a courtroom scene set on the remote Island of San Piedro. A Japanese fisherman, Kabuo Miyamoto, is on trial for his life because he stands accused of murdering Carl Heines, Jr. The nature of Heines’s fatal wounds is used as incriminating evidence to arrest Kabuo because the coroner, Horace Adler, claims that they resemble wounds that could be inflicted by the Japanese war art of Kendo. Coincidentally, Kabuo is skilled in the art of Kendo.