Four and Twenty Blackbirds (Bardic Voices 4)

This post is part of a week-long series of reviews of Mercedes Lackey novels. See intro post for more information.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds (Bardic Voices 4)

Mercedes Lackey, 1996

Premise: Tal Rufen is a constable who cares about his job. Maybe he cares a little too much. When he becomes convinced magic connects a series of grisly murder-suicides, he refuses to give up the case, even when his supervisors disagree.

This is a more coherent novel than the first bardic Voices book. It's gently connected to the other books, but you wouldn't need to have read them to follow this. It's also a bit CSI Fantasy Kingdom, which I really enjoy.

Tal is a good character, maybe a smidge more honorable than one might expect, but kind, smart, and good at his job. When the action moves to the city of Kingsford, he is joined by Justiciar Mage Ardis, who was a minor character in some of the other books.

The story of the two of them, along with bird-man Visyr, working to catch a serial killer mage, is a solid and enjoyable one. However, my favorite thing about this book is the believable character development of each person.

Best of all is the resolution of the character plot, which makes perfect sense and is perfectly satisfying
without being obvious.

4 Stars- A Very Good Book