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nesso 's review for:

Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree
4.5
adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Simply put, Brigands and Breadknives is Baldree's best yet, definitively proving he is much more than the cozy coffee guy. 

A niche can be comfortable, but it's still a crack in the wall. For Fern, a bookshop owner of many years, that niche is not enough. A drunken mistake turned strange adventure allows readers, for the first time, to really move across the connected world of Baldree's books, and that world is great fun to traverse. The colorful cast provides great company, as always, with side characters and weird critters that really make me want to keep on exploring. Zyll in particular is a standout, but the shanklings were a great surprise. 

Brigands and Breadknives is as fun to read as its predecessors, but it is also more complex. It's been easy to root for Viv, but she didn't have to make particularly difficult choices, other than her retirement. But Fern is a protagonist with sharp little teeth who gets drunk and screws up and cries because she misses her pet. Fern has to make some very hard choices; those choices might let her loved ones down. But Brigands and Breadknives is a gentle reminder that the "loved" part always wins out with the people who matter. 

Travis Baldree may have made his name on cozy, but Brigands and Breadknives proves he has the skill to walk whatever road he chooses. We're all lucky to be along for the ride, wherever he goes next. I can't wait.