Feist's "Riftwar Saga" has long been one of my favourite fantasy series. The combination of epic adventure, well-written action scenes, a believable fantasy world and interesting characters meant that the books in the series were always interesting. The first thing to say about this latest Riftwar book is it is quite different in some ways from the previous books in the series, it lacks the epic scope and there are few action scenes. Fortunately, the believable fantasy world and interesting characters are still present here, and the quality of writing is up there with Feist's best.
The title of the book is possibly slightly misleading - although there is a murder mystery the main entertainment here is in the interactions of the three main characters. Pirojil, Durine and Kethol are three veteran mercenaries who have a rather cynical view of life but are likeable and are very good at what they do. After they are given the unenviable task of having to protect a minor nobleman from rumoured assassination attempts they find themselves sucked into the complexities of LaMutian politics, which despite their reluctance they deal well with. Feist's books have produced a number of memorable characters but these are among the best in the series.
Since the book is set entirely in one provincial city it lacks the epic scope of, say, Magician and there aren't any of Feist's trademark large battle scenes here but the dialogue and characterisation is good enough to make this a very entertaining read.
Like his previous collaborations (with Janny Wurts in the Empires books and William Forstchen in "Honoured Enemy") this book is a high quality as the main-series Riftwar books, while being different enough to be a refreshingly original read.