Four & Twenty Blackbirds (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

First hardcover appearance for Lackey's Bardic Voices series (The Eagle and the Nightingales, etc.). In the city of Haldene, constable Tal Rufen ponders a string of brutal murders. The victims are all poor street-musician girls, but Tal's clues are confusing: The perpetrators are also all dead (they always commit suicide right after carrying out a murder); in every case, the weapon is a knife with a characteristic blade, but somehow it invariably vanishes from the crime scene; as for the weather, it's always raining--because water washes away traces of magic? Confronted with indifference by his superiors (the cases are, after all, technically solved), Tal resigns when the murders stop and heads for Kingsford, a city in chaos where such crimes could go undetected. Sure enough, the murders begin again. Tal, now working for High Bishop Ardis, investigates and eventually discovers that a mage named Rand, who has the ability to transform himself into the Black Bird, seeks revenge for perceived wrongs done him in the past. And so he has orchestrated the murders as a means of enhancing his magical powers. Between the leisurely setup and the protracted windup lie hundreds of pages of verbose twiddling. Only fans who need everything spelled out in the tiniest detail will stick around. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

A magical maniac is loose in Alanda. The victims are always women, always lower-class, and the weapon is always a three-sided stiletto, most often found among Church regalia. But the killers are never churchmen, and they always commit suicide immediately after the bloody deed. Constable Tal Rufen really cares about his job, and when one of these murder/suicides happens on his beat he becomes obsessed with the case.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Baen (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671577786
• ISBN-13: 978-0671577780
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,072,545 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A departure from the usual free bard stories, June 24, 2000

By	Fred Camfield (Vicksburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Readers expecting the usual cast of characters from the free bard tales will be disappointed. While a few characters are carried forward from the previous books, including Ardis, Duke Arden, the Haspur Visyr, etc., this story has a new set of players. The chief protagonist is Tal Rufen, a police constable from Haldine investigation a string of mysterious and brutal murders of poor female street musicians/singers (or would be musicians) - murders committed by strangers that commit suicide, and murder weapons that vanish. As he follows the string of murders, Tal's investigation takes him to Kingsford and the High Bishop Justiciar Ardis. This is the Kingsford following the fire (see "A Cast of Corbies"). Tal finds himself in a new position, carrying out investigations for the church. Tal and Ardis must appraise their feelings for each other. Events lead to a final confrontation between Tal and an evil mage, living under a curse, who has a grudge against free bards and Ardis. The plot and characters are well developed to provide an interesting tale, but somewhat on the dark side (tracking a serial killer).

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Standalone Book in the Series, April 15, 2003

By	Nancy C. Beck (Northwestern New Jersey) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

****
I've read *exactly* one other of Mercedes Lackey's books - The Firebird, which bored me to tears.

Undaunted, I read the first 2 chapters of this book on-line several years ago, managed to get into the story, and after requesting this book as a Christmas present for several years, finally decided to get it on my own.

I have not read any of the other Bardic Voices books, so I can't comment on there not being any Free Bards within the story (they are occasionally referred to). What I liked about this story is that it's a combination mystery and fantasy, as another poster has said. Yes, you do find out who the murderer is about halfway through, but I was intrigued enough by that point to keep going, to see what made this mage tick, why he/she wanted to go after Ardis. It was also interesting when the mage decides to change tactics near the end of the book. The way it was written, it made complete sense to me.

On another note, I found Ardis's grappling with staying in the Church to be realistically written, and it actually moved me at certain points.

With the current situation in the world, plus my own personal strife, this book saw me through a depressing period in my life. So, to sum it up, this book is a fine way to lose yourself in an interesting world.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ok, but not great., August 23, 1999

By A Customer

This book wasn't anything like the other bardic novels in this series. It had little or nothing to do with music or magic. I would have liked this story better if the "bad guy" hadn't been so pathetic. It seems as though Misty was getting desperate for an evil charactor in this book and just grabbed someone out of a hat. I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't read the book, but the person who is behind the murders just didn't seem to fit the part. It is good, however, that we are able to understand and get to know Ardis better, but over all I felt disconnected from the under-developed charactors. A very light book; good if you have nothing else to read.