Four And Twenty Blackbirds: A Bardic Voices Novel - Hardcover

Lackey, Mercedes

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671878530 ISBN 13: 9780671878535

Publisher: Baen Books, 1997

Synopsis

A MAGICAL MANIAC IS LOOSE IN ALANDA! A magical murderer is loose in Alanda. The victims are always women, always lower-class, and the weapon is always a three-sided stiletto, most often found among Church regalia. But the killers are never churchmen, and they always commit suicide immediately after the bloody deed. Tal Rufen is just a simple constable. But he really cares about his job, and when one of these murder/suicides happens on his beat he becomes obsessed. His superiors don't carethe victims will never be missed, and their murderers are already justly dead. But every instinct Tal Rufen has cries out that he has seen only one small piece of a bigger and much nastier puzzle....

About this title

Review:

‘Gypsy encounters and magic permeate a fast-paced fantasy well-laced with romance’
Bookwatch

From the Back Cover:

A MURDER MYSTERY WITH A TWIST OF MAGIC.

A rash of mysterious deaths is gripping the city of Kingsford: murders are followed immediately by suicides; the target is almost always a female gypsy or street musician; and the weapon used is always a three-sided dagger – disappearing as mysteriously as the true killer.

With the victims being free-bards and gypsies, the local constable Tal is fighting to have this case taken seriously. Thus he joins forces with Ardis, a Justiciar Mage and Priest of the church: only these two people seem to have noticed that these are not open-and-shut cases and, presented with such a mysterious set of clues, they decide that there must be magecraft at work. With the help of Vysir, a birdman, they must unravel this perplexing case and trace the clues back to an evil, cunning source...

About this edition

• Publisher: Baen Books
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0671878530
• ISBN 13: 9780671878535
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432