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Events spawned by hatreds old and new and personal ties of honor once again reach into the lives of martial arts scholar Connor Burke and the master Warrior Yamashita, snaring them in a struggle of international proportions which ultimately threatens the lives of both master and pupil, setting them upon a path in search of the most deadly of foes.
About the author
A nationally know expert on the culture and practice of the martial arts, John Donohue has been banging around dojo for more than 30 years.
Fascinated with the themes of human action and potential he uncovered in his research, John began thinking about the fictional possibilities inherent in the world of the martial arts.
John has always been fascinated with other cultures and was attracted to the Asian martial disciplines because of their blend of philosophy and action. He began studying Shotokan Karatedo in college. He joined practical training with more formal education, completing a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Fusing the way of the pen and the way of the sword, while writing John has trained in the martial disciplines of aikido, iaido, judo, karatedo, kendo, and taiji. He has dan (black belt) ranks in both karatedo and kendo.
Summary
[Japan] An intelligence analyst is murdered on temple grounds.
[Manila] Two embassy guards go missing and a bizarre execution video is discovered by a special-forces team.
[New York] Martial arts expert Connor Burke is hired as a consultant for an elite US Army training program.
[Mindanao Philippines] A young Japanese ethnographer from Harvard University is kidnapped by a terrorist cell of Abu Sayeff.
A renegade martial arts Sensei known as the Tengu has been recruited to train a splinter group of Asian terrorists with links to Al Qaeda. The Tengu mourns the vanished prestige and cultural heritage of Imperial Japan. He, like the men he trains, believes the West is responsible for destroying the spiritual essence of a once-great culture.
In a series of violent clashes spawned by the bizarre intersection of contemporary fundamentalist terrorist ideology and the personal vendettas of the Tengu, Connor Burke and his martial arts teacher Yamashita are pawns in a game that will ensnare them while they search for the most deadly of foes: the Tengu.
