Fantasy is my favorite fiction genre. I picked up the bardic voices books because of the music theme. I enjoyed all of them, but this book stood out to me. It successfully mixed fantasy and detective genres together into a fantastic novel. I have read the book on a number of occasions and it's one of my go to books when I'm in between new novels and need some time away from my research reading. While the other books in the series focus more on action, this book is much more thoughtful. It engages the reader in the mystery and intrigue, frustrations and victories of the characters as they try to stop the murders. I'd definitely recommend this book to those who love either genre.
So I'm going to take the time to use this space to rant a bit about this book. First off, the narrative style drove me nuts at the beginning - huge blocks of straight narrative, little dialogue, (well, lots of internal dialogue as the characters mused for pages about what might be happening in this serial killer mystery). I gradually got over that though, or maybe just dealt with it better. Then Lackey introduces a romantic subplot, which of course made things more interesting for me. It wasn't
What do You think about Four & Twenty Blackbirds (2004)?
This last book in the Bardic Voices series actually has very little to do with the Free Bards, and everything to do with several of the minor characters from previous books. This is actually more of a mystery than the fantasy/romance of the first 3 books, altho the mystery isn't very deep, since I think I figured out the murderer in like 3 or 4 pages--if it took that long. But Lackey gives her usual touch to this one, and it was still enjoyable, even if it wasn't quite what I was expecting from a book in this series.
—Ann aka Iftcan
