Posted by One of my favorite things about rereading all of the champions is how different they are from one another. Once upon a time, SPFBO had a reputation for favoring epic and grimdark fantasy to the point where some folks said it wasn’t fair — but I think these champions can put that rumor to bed for good because although those genres are represented, they don’t dominate, and a comedy is the current front-runner for the champion of champions.
This is a whodunnit fantasy taken to level 11 as far as tropes and cliches (but in a good way, it’s purposeful and stylistic). It’s actually a very specific kind of whodunnit which uses the dwindling party trope where one of the party is the killer, but no one is sure who’s doing the killing, not even the reader. This is a very small-scale book, in that the majority of it takes place in a singluar location and focuses on the same group of people from start to finish. However, if the murderer escapes and makes it into the city, the consequences could be dire. The backdrop of potential large-scale consquences helped add a little gravity and tension to an otherwise simple plot.
Isabeau Agarwal is a huntress, and she’s trying to track down the mimic before it’s too late. The mimic she is hunting kills and then imitates its victims to a degree of accuracy that even intimate partners and family members can’t tell the difference between the original and the imposter. Mimics in this world are called Doppelvyrms, and they’re just one of a few kinds of weird and creepy creatures in this world. She finds herself at an inn where she thinks she has finally cornered it, but she’s not certain which of the guests is the mimic.
Each of the characters staying at this inn is a little bit of an exaggerated personality, which, imho, borders on being more like a caricature than a character, but pulls back just enough not to break my disbelief. As the book goes on, the characters do become more three dimensional and a little more fleshed out, but the highlight for me in this book wasn’t the characters, it was the super creepy world these characters were living in.
The heavy use of tropes and cliches was an intentional choice, and I think if you’re really into the old-style murder mysteries, this could suit you really well. It’s like a funnier, more steampunk, necromancy-ish version of Sherlock Holmes. Sometimes when these characters die, their deaths can lean so hard into cliches that it comes full circle and becomes entertaining instead of eye-rolling. That style choice is a hard line to walk, but it did work for me. There was a lot of humor in this one that, if it works for you, really makes this one charming — and that’s true even when characters are being murdered.
There was a surprising amount of world-building for a book that stayed in one location the entire time. Between the banter of the guests, the undead staff who work in the inn, and the past adventures of the huntress, there’s a large world that’s painted in a small room. I think Penny, the “living doll” was one of my favorite characters despite the fact that she doesn’t talk.
This is a straightforward, fast-paced, quick read that’s a nice little palate cleanser. I’d recommend it to anyone who reads Sherlock Holmes but wants there to be monsters.
As much fun as I had with this one, unfortunately, it’s coming in last for our rankings. This was a wild task to try and rank the finalists, and the difference between how much I liked our top book vs our bottom book is fairly insignificant. I can see how anyone would pick any of these books and pick it as their favorite – so if you like the sound of it, give it a try!