A study of over 800 years of the Japanese practice of ritual suicide by disembowelment might seem grisly, but there's far more here than blood and gore. British author Rankin, who lived in Japan for many years, provides an array of fictional and historical accounts from the practice's earliest days to the beginning of the 20th century to examine seppuku's history, its shift from a spontaneous martial deed performed in the heat of battle to a formalized ritual with elaborate protocol, and the act's philosophical resonances that led it to become an intrinsic part of samurai culture. Interspersed are a selection of rules from seppuku manuals, a look at types of seppuku, and a chapter of quotes from plays, death poems, and other sources. Rankin also casts a critical eye on narratives that might have been embellished or romanticized; accounts of popular figures long admired in Japan and elsewhere as ideals of samurai loyalty come under particularly sharp scrutiny. VERDICT Rankin clearly intends this to be the definitive English work on seppuku. A fascinating book—well researched and extensively cited without being overly dry—it's an excellent read for anyone intrigued by the subject or by Japanese history in general.—Kathleen McCallister, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia