Book Review | The Justice of Kings

Sir Konrad Vonvalt is the King’s Justice—a detective, judge and executioner all in one. However, while investigating a noblewoman’s murder, he begins to unravel a grand conspiracy that threatens to topple both his order and the empire itself.

The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan is a high fantasy murder mystery that’s told from the perspective of Vonvalt’s clerk, Helena. Conceptually it sounded amazing to me. However, the book ultimately left me with a lot of mixed feelings.

I’ll start with what parts I liked.

1) Vonvalt’s abilities. He can compel people to speak the truth unless they are strong-willed. He can also use necromancy to speak to the dead, which is a handy skill to have when there’s a murderer afoot.

2) The themes. The author integrated his legal background to good effect within the book, and I found the legal ethics and questioning what is right vs what is the law really fascinating.

However, what could have been an interesting story unfortunately gets buried beneath a bizarre instalove romance that left me baffled. Towards the beginning of the novel, Helena becomes infatuated with a nondescript watchman whom she had barely even exchanged a few words with, and she then proceeds to pine over him for half of the book. It added nothing to the story for me, and honestly, I think it would have made for a much stronger book if that particular subplot had been removed during developmental editing.

Overall, I wish the book had focused more on the political intrigue and Helena and Vonvalt’s relationship instead of derailing the story with an unconvincing romance.

Thank you, NetGalley and Orbit, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Details:

Publication Date : February 22, 2022

Publisher : ‎ Orbit

ISBN : ‎0316361380

Pages : 432

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