The Strange Death of Lord Jaylin Marr

The savior of the city is a lie in this epic fantasy murder mystery, where a veteran magistrate days away from retirement must use a sanity-draining magical artifact to unmask the assassin of a beloved hero.

Chief Magistrate Lyle Salmoni is seven days from a quiet retirement, dreaming of his farm and his half-orc wife. But the murder of Lord Jaylin Marr destroys the peace. A knife found the legendary hero dead in his bed within a heavily guarded fortress manor, and no one heard a sound. To solve the impossible crime, Lyle uses a dangerous magical pendant to dig through the minds of the city's mourners. The artifact offers absolute truth, but it demands his sanity in return.

As he plunges into the memories of a crippled carpenter, a broken blacksmith, and a betrayed noblewoman, Lyle uncovers a decades-long trail of malice. Lord Marr was not a hero; he was a predator cloaked in a royal crest. While the Royal Guard demands a quick arrest and the King wants a martyr, Lyle wants the truth. He will hunt the real assassin through the muck of Carim and the highest halls of power. This is his final case. It might be his last.

"If you were reading my mind," Brayl said. "You know what kind of person Jaylin is. And you also know I didn't kill him."

• Epic fantasy murder mystery
• Gritty political intrigue and corruption
• Hardboiled magical detective tropes