My Five Word TL:DR Review : Twisted Mystery Meets Dark Fantasy

I picked Crucible of Chaos up last year shortly before Christmas and I don’t think my frame of mind was in the right place for the bleakness of the setting so I put it down.  I always intended to pick this one back up – the opening chapters were fantastic after all – it just took me a little longer than I’d planned.

As the story begins we meet Estevar Borros, a sword fighting magistrate and investigator of the supernatural.  He’s making his way across a causeway to Isola Sombra where a towering abbey is literally in chaos.  The monks seem to have gone crazy and talk of new Gods, demons and strange worship abounds.  Can our investigator get to the bottom of these shenanigans.

I won’t really go into the plot because there lies the road of spoilers.

This is another clever murder mystery that brings the winning investigative style of one character into play and combines supernatural elements that quickly escalate into all out mayhem.

Estevar is an interesting character indeed.  He’s sharp witted, sharper tongued and yet can turn on the charm when it benefits him.  His mule, Imperious, is seriously the perfect sidekick – I loved that mule and I won’t deny that I felt more concern for his well-being than I did for any of the other characters.

So, the other characters.  Well the monks have split into different factions.  It is believed that new Gods are arising and nobody can agree on what exactly will come next. Some of the monks are taking a very militant stance, others have spiralled into drunken mania.  And, the Abbot is dead – and yet refuses to stay buried.  I liked Estevar, he’s a mash up of clever thinking and daring bluff.  He’s not as young or fit as he once was and is hampered by a serious sword wound that he incurred before travelling to the island.  I mean seriously – at points, I was thinking will you just give the man a break for goodness sake!  He is joined on his investigation by a young woman who is determined to help and keen to learn, Caeda.  I really liked her, she wriggled herself into my affections and there is, well, a double twist, coming your way with her involvement.  I didn’t see either coming.

The setting for this one definitely plays really well into the story.  People sometimes say that the setting is almost like another character and in this case that’s definitely true.  A small island, battered by storm and sea, demons arising, tall windy towers, crypts beneath.  It’s all wonderfully dark and menacing and creates the perfect atmosphere.

In terms of criticisms. Well, I think at first the darkness of the abbey was a little too much, also the pacing, after the initial causeway ‘incident’ dipped a little for me, although, as I already mentioned, I think some of that is due to my own mindset at the time.

What I can say is that once I picked this one back up I had no problem easily falling into the story.  Indeed, the pace is totally ramped up for the finale and in fact becomes almost over the top daunting, you can’t see how these characters are going to get through these trials in one piece! And, I became fully absorbed by the overarching mystery and Estevar’s investigation.

Overall, this was a clever combination of fantasy and mystery.  Dark and a bit brutal, wicked in parts, well written with a style that made me frequently smile.  I look forward to reading more from the Court of Shadows series.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4 of 5 stars.