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jonathanpalfrey's review
4.0
In this book, Kurland took over with remarkable aplomb the alternative history scenario and characters created by his late friend Randall Garrett, and proceeded to introduce new characters and background details, while maintaining Garrett's existing regular characters.
The generous amount of background detail gives a satisfying sense of immersion in this 20th-century Angevin Empire; the characters are varied and quite well presented.
The crimes in the book seem rather contrived to me, and crime fans may find better material elsewhere; the book will probably appeal more to fans of alternative history.
And also to fans of sf/fantasy: there's a kind of magic that works in this world, although it's a scientific kind of magic and there are limits to its capabilities.
The generous amount of background detail gives a satisfying sense of immersion in this 20th-century Angevin Empire; the characters are varied and quite well presented.
The crimes in the book seem rather contrived to me, and crime fans may find better material elsewhere; the book will probably appeal more to fans of alternative history.
And also to fans of sf/fantasy: there's a kind of magic that works in this world, although it's a scientific kind of magic and there are limits to its capabilities.
vesper1931's review
mysterious
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
1988. And the Angevin Empire is still on power under King John IV, and magic is rife throughout the world. Unfortunately for Lord Darcy, Chief Investigator, he has three investigations to consider. A threat to the King, a double murder in Toumadotte and the murder of wizards.
An entertaining story
An entertaining story
thepurplegiraffe's review
4.0
Ten little wizards sat down to dine,
One wizard stuffed his face - and now there are nine.
The reason I picked this is up is because it was one of my dad's favorite books. I remember him re-reading it several times, though I never truly knew what it was about. So, in honor of Father's Day and his birthday this past week, I decided to pick it up and see what all the fuss was about. Turns out, Lord Darcy is Sherlock Holmes in a magic setting. And it's awesome.
Was this the best book I've ever read? No. I can say with fair certainty. But I enjoyed myself immensely.
It's a murder mystery, but not like any I typically encounter simply because there's magic involved. Or at least, we assume there's magic involved. Most of the actual murders aren't magical at all but the circumstances in which the bodies are found seem to make magic the only option. Which is really stinking cool. Why aren't there more magical murder mysteries out there?
I had no idea where we were going for like... 150 pages of the 188 in this book. I felt like Master Sean at the end when he said something along the lines of "I give him [Darcy] the facts that I've found, he does some poking around, and then spells it out for me in a way that makes it seem like it was obvious the whole time." I didn't quite get the full of that "aha!" moment, but I did know that Lord Darcy knew what went down by the end, though he seemed to spend as much of the book confused as I did. (Which I kind of appreciated. Like, I know it's not that the detective knows what's going on and he's just not telling me. He genuinely doesn't know either.) I did feel like there was foreshadowing to the ultimate reveal, but the big reveal felt like a bit of a let down? IDK, there were a lot of characters that could have been the culprit and it felt like it was none of them. Which was weird. It was a weird feeling.
But still, I enjoyed myself so much while reading this, and that's why I have to give it four stars. It was so much fun. The humor was said with such a straight face that you could miss it if you weren't looking for it but it was hilarious. There were so many instances where Darcy would say, "what are your thoughts?" and the other person would say "idk I think they're dead." which made me laugh. Out loud. In front of my family. Over murders. I love it. Like this bit:
“Remember, young man, he isn’t dead until I say he’s dead.” Sir Moses said. He pushed Lord Darcy aside and stepped over to the throne. He stared down at Master Sorcerer Dandro Bittman.
“The man is dead,” Sir Moses said.
and this bit:
“That’s what I mean,” Lord Darcy said. “Even if your mind, or Marquis Sherrinford’s mind, ran to murder, they wouldn’t run to this type of murder.This is advertised, prominent, thrust at us like a great dare - and totally insane.”
“We are greatly complimented, my lord,” Marquis Sherrinford said dryly. “You don’t think we’re gibbering madmen.”
Everyone is so sarcastic and it's wonderful.
Another thing I really appreciated - everyone likes the king. Everyone likes each other. They're all just genuinely likeable people, and no one really has any beef with the others, and while it made the mystery harder to solve, I feel like it was more... realistic, I guess? than a lot of the murder mysteries I watch. In those, there's always this "unspoken tension" between coworkers and there wasn't any of that here. Which was delightful.
Overall, like I said, not perfect. Not my favorite murder mystery (though I feel like I ought to read more mysteries, I really enjoy them), but so much fun. I definitely want to dig into the other Lord Darcy books my dad left me. 4 stars from me.
One wizard stuffed his face - and now there are nine.
The reason I picked this is up is because it was one of my dad's favorite books. I remember him re-reading it several times, though I never truly knew what it was about. So, in honor of Father's Day and his birthday this past week, I decided to pick it up and see what all the fuss was about. Turns out, Lord Darcy is Sherlock Holmes in a magic setting. And it's awesome.
Was this the best book I've ever read? No. I can say with fair certainty. But I enjoyed myself immensely.
It's a murder mystery, but not like any I typically encounter simply because there's magic involved. Or at least, we assume there's magic involved. Most of the actual murders aren't magical at all but the circumstances in which the bodies are found seem to make magic the only option. Which is really stinking cool. Why aren't there more magical murder mysteries out there?
I had no idea where we were going for like... 150 pages of the 188 in this book. I felt like Master Sean at the end when he said something along the lines of "I give him [Darcy] the facts that I've found, he does some poking around, and then spells it out for me in a way that makes it seem like it was obvious the whole time." I didn't quite get the full of that "aha!" moment, but I did know that Lord Darcy knew what went down by the end, though he seemed to spend as much of the book confused as I did. (Which I kind of appreciated. Like, I know it's not that the detective knows what's going on and he's just not telling me. He genuinely doesn't know either.) I did feel like there was foreshadowing to the ultimate reveal, but the big reveal felt like a bit of a let down? IDK, there were a lot of characters that could have been the culprit and it felt like it was none of them. Which was weird. It was a weird feeling.
But still, I enjoyed myself so much while reading this, and that's why I have to give it four stars. It was so much fun. The humor was said with such a straight face that you could miss it if you weren't looking for it but it was hilarious. There were so many instances where Darcy would say, "what are your thoughts?" and the other person would say "idk I think they're dead." which made me laugh. Out loud. In front of my family. Over murders. I love it. Like this bit:
“Remember, young man, he isn’t dead until I say he’s dead.” Sir Moses said. He pushed Lord Darcy aside and stepped over to the throne. He stared down at Master Sorcerer Dandro Bittman.
“The man is dead,” Sir Moses said.
and this bit:
“That’s what I mean,” Lord Darcy said. “Even if your mind, or Marquis Sherrinford’s mind, ran to murder, they wouldn’t run to this type of murder.This is advertised, prominent, thrust at us like a great dare - and totally insane.”
“We are greatly complimented, my lord,” Marquis Sherrinford said dryly. “You don’t think we’re gibbering madmen.”
Everyone is so sarcastic and it's wonderful.
Another thing I really appreciated - everyone likes the king. Everyone likes each other. They're all just genuinely likeable people, and no one really has any beef with the others, and while it made the mystery harder to solve, I feel like it was more... realistic, I guess? than a lot of the murder mysteries I watch. In those, there's always this "unspoken tension" between coworkers and there wasn't any of that here. Which was delightful.
Overall, like I said, not perfect. Not my favorite murder mystery (though I feel like I ought to read more mysteries, I really enjoy them), but so much fun. I definitely want to dig into the other Lord Darcy books my dad left me. 4 stars from me.
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