Synopsis
Silence of the Dead is a fantasy murder mystery with the wit of a detective comedy—where necromancy is just another thankless job, the dead refuse to talk, and the killer has an unsettling passion for pastry-based clues.
Holtar didn’t become a necromancer for the prestige—he did it because talking to the dead is marginally easier than dealing with the living. Unfortunately, his latest case has given him a fresh the corpses aren’t talking.
No last words. No cryptic riddles. Just silence. And silence, as it turns out, is very bad when your job depends on listening to the dead speak of their final moments.
With only a snarky, possessed skull called Seymour as his companion, Holtar must unravel a conspiracy that threatens both the living and the dead—one that grows more tangled, absurd, and dangerously personal with every once-bitten pastry.
Review – a fantasy murder mystery, you say?
Never has there been murder so foul, so heinous, so utterly … delicious? Marks Ewington have ensured I will never look at a pie in the same way again. It’s a fantasy murder mystery indeed and it’s a damn good one.
Bones & Betrayals: Silence of the Dead sees us follow over the shoulder of Holtar, Tronte’s only necromancer, and his skull associate, Seymour, a loudmouth, wise-cracking former thief with a voracious appetite.
I enjoyed the dynamic between the two. Very reminiscent of The Dresden Files without being a carbon copy. There are plenty of nods to Ewington’s other works, particularly The Hero Interviews (which Holtar and Seymour appear in as it happens). When you compare this book and The Hero Interviews there is a slight shift in Ewington’s humour. Gone are the footnotes (Marks, I believe this is likely your input!) and echoes of a fantasy humour typified by Terry Pratchett, instead we have a more subtle and witty prose which serves Silence of the Dead well. There’s still plenty of silliness don’t get me wrong but nothing that shifts focus away from a canny whodunnit.
So, what ensues is a series of bread piecrumbs for Holtar and the reader to follow along and solve the case, of course. Whilst this is a fantasy murder mystery that dishes out plenty of silliness there are generous measures of darkness too. Murder by pie is gruesome to say the least. We are witness to the murders first-hand and each victim’s last moments are a desperate read, dastardly captivating. I have read a lot of detective and crime fiction in my time and it’s not often we’d get inside the victim’s POV. This storytelling hits harder later in the book as we know more who the characters are. These scenes were undoubtedly my favourite element in the book.
Despite the POV feeling like a break from the norm, there are some rules that must always be followed. The detective in a detective fiction story must always have an innate character flaw after all, so why not have someone with an urge to raise the dead? Holtar’s battle against The Urge is a constant menace in the background. It teases future stories in this setting that will ramp up that menace.
As for the investigation itself I’m happy to report that Silence of the Dead passes all of the detective fiction tests with flying colours. The murder plot successfully delivers that ‘easily solvable yet you’ll kick yourself for not getting it sooner’ feel, a must for the fantasy murder mystery genre. There’s ample baiting and switching to keep you on your toes with it too. I had so much fun tagging along for the investigation and I’m sure I’ll re-read my hard copy to see what I missed from the first readthrough!
A Dish Best Served …
There’s something doubly delicious about this fantasy murder mystery. There’s so much charm that it’s impossible not to get swept along. Silence of the Dead is a great deal of fun. It dances between darkness and silliness in good measure, Holtar and Seymour bouncing off each other throughout. It’s like The Thursday Murder Club and Randall & Hopkirk: Deceased mixed together. Thursday Fantasy Murder Mystery Club, if you will.
Well worth grabbing yourself a slice of the pie.
Leave a Reply