The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan
Book information
The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan
Book one in Empire of the Wolf series
Published first on 22nd of February 2022 (so many 2s)
Published first by Orbit
4 stars out of 5
Lawyer writes a fantasy book which is equal parts political intrigue and murder mystery; plenty of law related content (including a few passages dedicated to law ethics) and a fairly packed world building are the stage for a few characters to shine and share with us their adventures.
A few highlights
Legal knowledge of the author is real (well, he’s been a litigator for a few years) and his legal education and experience permeated the story
World building is
familiar: European Medieval setting, gothic ambience (at least, it felts quite dark and gloomy), interesting friction between sacred and secular powers;
and unique: there is a sprinkle of magic in this story (and magic is used in a clever way, by allowing the investigators to do their job more effectively) and it shapes quite a lot of the process
Tropes/themes that work for me
Magic - as shared above
Sherlock themed story - there are a few people who believe that this story and the characters are inspired by Sherlock and Watson and there might be some truth to it. Yet, in other terms, this is a familiar setting of a main detective and his/her/their side kick(s)
Great stakes - while the story starts relatively small (managing a specific problem in a remote village) the story quickly expanded to make this a vicious problem for the entire empire
