Humans and elves, dwarves and gnomes, wizards and warriors all live and do business in the thriving, overcrowded port city of Cliff’s End, to say nothing of the tourists and travellers who arrive by land and sea, passing through the metropolis on matters of business or pleasure–or on quests. The hard-working, under-appreciated officers of the Cliff’s End Castle Guard work day and night to maintain law and order as best they can.
Gan Brightblade is one of the world’s greatest heroes and a personal friend of the Lord and Lady of Cliff’s End. So when he’s brutally murdered in grubby lodgings in Dragon Precinct, on the eve of a great quest, the Captain of the Guard puts his two best investigators on the case. The half-elf Danthres Tresyllione and ex-soldier Torin ban Wyvald soon discover that the crime scene is empty of any forensic evidence–physical or magickal. They have no clues, and heat is on.
The Lord and Lady want their friend’s murder solved–now. The populace is mourning the loss of a great hero. The ever-unhelpful Brotherhood of Wizards could take over the case at any minute. And then another member of Brightblade’s party turns up dead….
I didn’t have much hope for the book, nothing against the author, but the topic itself was just bleh. No spaceships, no lasers, and only a bare mention of magic or superpowers, but I gave it a try because 1 – I like the author’s other spaceship based work, and 2 – it was $1 on amazon (still is as of this review too!) and I’m happy I gave it a chance. The story takes a bit to build the world, but it was worth the wait in the end. Now that the dirty business of setting the scene is done, I’ve purchased the other books in the series and will eventually read those too.
