Review: Murder in Cormyr - Chet Williamson

Title - Murder in Cormyr
Author - Chet Williamson
Year - 1998
Stand Alone or Series - Stand Alone
Pages - 248
Rating - 7/10
Reading Time - 3 days (August & September 2010)

Review

This is the first book in a stand alone series called "Mysteries". Two are set in Forgotten Realms and another is a crossover from Dragonlance.

First of all I must say this book reads as an Agatha Christie's pastiche of the famous Herculae Poirot. This was my thought of it. But the ending gave something away that in no way Poirot would behave like. Nevertheless it was a good book.

This book was written in the first person perspective and I must say I loved they way he talked (I read) because it was a funny and light read. As a young quarter-halfling (Jasper) tries to steal something from a War Wizard (Benelaius) to impress his friends. It goes wrong and instead of it he becomes his servant. Then at the end of one year service they become the lead investigator and assistant of a foul crime. This crimes involves a ghost (well two), merchants, innkeepers at so on. The story unfolds nicely and you get some clues to try to find who the killer is. In the end the killer was somebody I thought it was but the last three chapters we learn the reasoing behind the wizard and how he came to that conclusion. It was quite good. 

Being this a mystery novel in a fantasy world it got something that make me thing... The time-travel spells, the clone spell, the mirror-image spell, there are dozens spells that could aid the investigator and a dozen more to help the killer. It's odd that nothing of that entered this story. Odd and dissapointing. But neverthless a good companion book to the Realm of Mysteries that I review here.