Part murder mystery, part grand political fantasy, Richard Swan’s The Justice of Kings takes an unusual approach to the gritty fantasy genre, focusing more on the steady grind of the legal process than action and adventure. Sir Konrad Vonvalt is a Justice, a lawman who roams the Sovan Empire empowered with both the authority to exercise judgement, and the powers – metaphorical and literal – to enforce punishment. Accompanied by clerk Helena and taskman Dubine, Vonvalt pauses his roaming to investigate the murder of a noblewoman, only to gradually realise that this one crime is in fact only a symptom of a much bigger problem. For all Vonvalt’s faith in the moral certainty of his role as a Justice, times are changing and a power struggle is starting that will threaten the Imperial Magistratum, and the Empire itself.
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