Hearn, L: Across the Nightingale Floor

Set in an engaging, alternate Japan, this first book in a new epic trilogy has already become a bestselling sensation in England and Australia, earning comparisons to "Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." It begins with legend of a nightingale floor in a black-walled fortress--a floor that sings in alarm at the step of an assassin.