Customer Reviews

MURDER IN HALRUAA (Forgotten Realms Fantasy Adventure)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'll admit I'm biased ... because I'm the author. But, outside of a tentative first chapter (which I rewrote at least three times), I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out, considering its origins. This novel was created to be one of a series written by Edgar Award-nominated authors that recreated classic mystery traditions in the Dungeons & Dragons world. There had been a Sherlock Holmesian, and a Nero Wolfian, novel prior to mine, but I was determined to recreate the joys of Ellery Queen in my book.

Although all but forgotten today, Ellery Queen was a consistently best-selling series in its hey-day, which never got the respect it deserved outside its insular literary realm. The reason is two-fold: 1, the entire series hinged on a gimmick -- that "Ellery Queen" was both the leading character and the author of his own books (which were actually written by two cousins, Manfred Lee and Frederic Dannay), and 2, the more than a half-dozen films and TV series based on the books never portrayed Ellery accurately. These middling movies and shows always pictured EQ as a mild-mannered milquetoast when he was actually a manic-depressive obsessive.

Even so, correcting that oversight was not my goal here. No, the EQ books' integral joy was their impressive handling of their intricate murder mystery plots. Having suffered a nervous breakdown because his solution of a murder had led to tragedy (in the landmark novel Cat of Many Tails), EQ was careful with his subsequent solutions, which led to him "solving" a murder as many as three times: once for the victim's family, once for the local law, and, finally, the whole truth for his NYC detective father. That meant coming up with three wholly credible explanations on the same set of clues!

That was what I set out to do in this book, as well as one more thing. As a salute to the Ellery Queen-name thingy, I saw the opportunity to do something unique in the history of the mystery. I won't reveal it here. You'll have to read the book (bwa ha ha), but I think/feel/hope I was successful. Now if only I could go back and rewrite that first chapter again...!

This book rules. I read it in about two days, I just couldn't put it down. From mystery to humor its one of the best books in the Forgotten Realms series...too bad WoTC canned the whole mystery series when they bought TSR. I really wish Mureder in Ravens Bluff would have been published since this book and its predessesor Murder in Cormyr were so good. READ IT

I havn't actually finished this book yet. Do NOT base anything on the above description since it is completely wrong. The main Character is Pryce Covington and HE has ben mistaken for Darlington blade. Just thought any other readers should know this. The entire description is wrong and i'm not even going to coment on them. The five stars is because I'm on page 60 now and so far it has captivated my attention.

Unfortunately, both Murder in Cormyr as well as Murder in Halruaa are a major disappointment indeed! Badly written, by what seems to be inexperienced people who not only to have had no previous work or any serious contact with Fantasy (not even to mention the specifics of the Forgotten Realms Campaign World), but writing books-ANY books- in general! Myself, a mystery enthusiast of Arthur Conan Doyle?s and Agatha Christie's work and a Fantasy/Dungeons and Dragons "Fanatic" have no alternative, but to write this negative review in an effort to warn the potential reader of what they are in for. Both these authors should at least have read a Forgotten Realms novel before attempting to write one, and what's more if they did not want to or did not have the ability to write this type of book, they should not even have attempt it. However, since they did, how and why were these books allowed to hit the printing press and then the stores? They discredit themselves (the authors), they discredit TSR, but most importantly they discredit the readers/fans of the Forgotten Realms, especially those who thought that combining Fantasy and Mystery would be a great idea, like myself. From the weak plot, to the bad writing, to the ridiculous choice of names for the characters, to the jokes that fall flat, to the great lack of knowledge regarding Toril, the books fail miserably!
It is very unfortunate that the Murder Series came to an end before the writing of Murder in Ravens Bluff and WotC should reconsider their decision now that years have gone by and maybe resurrect the project, but considering the poor work included in these books I can at least understand why they did so back then. In conclusion, it is with great sadness that I only give two stars to these books since almost all the Forgotten Realms novels that have been written have been more than wonderful-what with RA Salvatore, Elaine Cunningham, Ed Greenwood etc. The books could have been fantastic if the right people or the necessary care had been given during the writing of the stories. A shame really! My advice, read them only after you're done reading all the other Forgotten Realms books and you are still in need of more Toril related material; at least you'll get a slight hint/taste of Faerun.