Just when I thought Acatl had found out “whodunit” and we were nearing the conclusion, I realized we weren’t even past the halfway point! The murder mystery, while integral, is in fact the tip of an iceberg that proves to be more of a test of Acatl’s mettle than anyone could have suspected. This is a fairly long and involved book, with a lot of machinations behind the main mystery. Indeed, given its primary setting of Tenochtitlan, this is actually an historical urban fantasy mystery.Īll this genre blending might sound like a recipe for disaster, but in de Bodard’s capable hands it makes for a great story. And rather than making this a straight-up historical mystery, like the fantastic Falco series by Lindsey Davis, de Bodard includes some magic in her mystery. As a long-lived emperor under whom the Mexica have prospered lies on his deathbed, Acatl, a priest of the dead, finds himself investigating a murder or abduction where his estranged brother is the prime suspect. Aliette de Bodard has created a mystery set in the Mexica (Aztec) Empire in 1480. It took me forever to read Servant of the Underworld, and I don’t know why.
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