Review: An original story with a mix of fantasy, folk tales, mythology, romance and mystery
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 20, 2014
The title pretty well sums up the book; it's all about magic and murder among dwarves although the story is told from the point of view of a female human who is hired to investigate the murder of of local dwarf woman. Amanda has an ability that she calls oddsense that seems to be a combination of clairvoyance and premonition. It's this ability that gets her hired to find the killer of the dwarf community's midwife. She's also still dealing with the death of her husband Jason and gets involved in the search for a missing local human girl. There's a lot going on in the story and it dragged in a few places. During the last 40 percent or thereabouts the pace picked up and I became invested in the story. Prior to that, my attention wandered. I enjoyed the story well enough but the author's style was at times ponderous. He did a nice job though of sprinkling clues both false and true and most of the time I was not able to predict what would happen. While I didn't always love the dwarves I did appreciate Bundy's take on them. These dwarves are true to the old stories but set in a current times with an interesting back story. "Magic and Murder Among the Dwarves" is an original story with a mix of fantasy, folk tales, mythology, romance and mystery. It's character driven more than plot driven but there's some action and suspense and some dark undertones. It's not a cheerful story but there's hope mixed in with the sorrow and it's original, which is refreshing in fantasy.I received a copy from the publisher for review.