This is an earlier novel by Mercedes & it shows. It's sort of a combination: a murder novel in a fantasy/ steam age setting.
As a crime novel, it suffers from some plot goofs, like somehow they know they're looking for a triangular bladed weapon before anyone witnesses a muder and sees the weapon used.
As a fantasy, has some interesting elements, but again comes up short. The magic system isn't at all explored beyond that it exists. There is the same lack in the "delambrian" elements, which are fairly common. Also some plot errors here, such as there is a man sized flying race (non-magical), and there is a man, magically transformed into a bird of the same size that "wouldn't be able to fly because it's too big"
( )

This book was the weakest of the series for me, even though it had an interesting story and likable characters. The author took a different approach from the previous books. None of our main characters were musicians, and the free bards only played a background role. That wasn’t the issue for me, though. I didn’t mind the change of pace.

I enjoyed the first 20%. We’re introduced to a new character, a constable, who’s trying to solve a mystery. There appears to be a serial killer who really hates female musicians. The strange thing is that each female musician is killed by a different murderer, and that murderer then proceeds to commit suicide. At around 20%, the explanation was made extremely obvious, but the characters trying to solve the crime didn’t catch on until much later. One of the characters should have caught on right away, but she dismissed the obvious solution for nebulous reasons. That really isn’t my main complaint about the book, though. A book can still be interesting even when the reader has the answers that the characters are still seeking.

My main complaint is the excessive amount of monologues and explanations. Each character analyzes his or her decisions in excruciating detail. Sometimes the decisions were analyzed more than once, and sometimes two characters made similar decisions and so we were presented with similar analyses from each of them. These mental analyses were also kind of backwards because usually the character would analyze their decisions after they had made and acted on them. The author seemed very concerned that I understand exactly why the characters did what they did. In most cases, I didn’t need or want that much explanation because the situation just wasn’t that complicated. Normally I’m the type of reader who wants more time in characters’ heads. I like to know what they’re thinking, what motivates them, and how they see the world around them. This book, on the other hand, took things too far even for me!

You also won’t normally see me complain about padding in a story. I don’t need a tight, streamlined story that races from beginning to end and keeps me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Those books can be fun, but I also enjoy books that engage in some meandering. Give me some meaningless conversations between characters. Give me some flashbacks that aren’t strictly related to the story. Give me some side stories that have very little to do with the main plot. If the book is well-written, and if I like reading about the characters, I’ll enjoy every word of it. This book, however, was only 423 pages and yet it felt like there was only enough story to support half as many pages. The rest of it just rehashed the same things from different angles.

The book did get more interesting near the end, so it was really just the middle that I had so much trouble with. The climactic event was pretty much what I’d expected, but it was still fun to read about. Maybe it seemed more fun than it actually was in comparison with the earlier tedium. There was another small twist near the end that I really can’t talk about without spoiling anything, but it was a departure from the previous books in the series. It was even a departure from what happens in many books written by other authors. It was refreshing and unexpected. ( )

Street singers are turning up dead. Constable Tal Rufen is almost positive it's the work of a serial killer - but since the victims aren't tax payers, the administration isn't interested. As the violence escalates, Tal begins to suspect something more sinister is at work. Can he find enough support to track down the killer in time?

Ties up a few loose threads left over from preceding Bardic Voices installments, but this stands quite well on its own. It moves fairly slowly, and since the killer is revealed early on, there's not much suspense. ( )

I admit that I've not been a fan of Ms Lackey's writing to this point. While this book does offer a strong male point of view and a unique storyline, it takes too long to get to the conclusion. I feel like this started as a short story and got padded to fill the requirements of a book. The switching point of view is done well, as no character steals the camera in the middle of a chapter to take over their point of view. Including the point of view of the criminal would not have been in my writing outline, however.

I think starting this series on book 4 may have been a mistake. However, since I don't normally grab one of this author's works, I figured I should be able to grab this book without problems.

Some positives I did find with ths book:
- it stands alone, you don't have to have read the previous books to understand what's happening.
- The mystery and magic are unique to the book. As I said above, though, it takes too much for the main characters to find the final culprit.

This is not on my recommend list. ( )

Sample Chapters: http://webscriptions.net/chapters/0671878530/0671878530.htm