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 ...