Murder in Cormyr

Murder in Cormyr by Chet Williamson is a Forgotten Realms novel first published in 1996. It is the first book of the loosely connected Mystery series, together with Murder in Halruaa and Murder in Tarsis.
==Description==
Murder in Cormyr is the second D&D novel from author Chet Williamson, after Mordenheim for the Ravenloft line. He had been commissioned by TSR, Inc. editor Brian Thomsen for these two work-for-hire novels. On his website, Williamson wrote that "While certainly not the most serious thing I've ever written, I took it seriously and did the best job I could while playing in someone else's world and by their rules." Having not even played D&D before, Williamson said he "pore[d] through the manuals for research for both this novel and Mordenheim, but never had to shake a pair of 27-sided dice." Going by the chosen setting and references, two likely sources are Volo's Guide to Cormyr and Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue, while there are only minor discrepancies ("weeks" and "o'clock" instead of tendays and "bells", and Evermeet and Sembia seeming much closer, the Vast Swamp less vast).
For the story, Williamson uses the model of "a sedentary wizard does the brainwork while his assistant does the footwork", presumably inspired by the Nero Wolfe stories by Rex Stout, with the retired wizard Benelaius in the role of armchair detective Nero Wolfe and his servant Jasper in the role of Archie Goodwin, though there are differences between them. Williamson adds "I used the old gag of supernatural fakery to cover up an all too natural series of murders." Another literary reference is in the regular mentions of the in-universe stories of Camber Fosrick, a fictional detective in the vein of a C. Auguste Dupin or Sherlock Holmes.
The story is told with a first-person point-of-view—a comparative rarity in D&D novels—in the form of an account written by the protagonist Jasper following the events of the novel. The style is light and humorous and, as one would expect for a murder mystery, it focuses on conversation and investigation, with few battles and little-to-no magic. The result is a story that explores small-town life, ordinary people, and intrigues in Faerûn rather than epic adventures and the affairs of great mages and gods.
The cover shows an artwork by Larry Elmore titled "Unexpected Find", painted in 1995. The exact scene appears nowhere in the events of Murder in Cormyr and similar scenes have several key differences, suggesting a miscommunication with Elmore or a borrowing of the existing "Unexpected Find" artwork as it appeared close enough to the spirit of the novel and its characters. (Perhaps a future mystery for Jasper and Benelaius?)
The cover proclaims that Chet Williamson was nominated for an Edgar Award, the Mystery Writers of America's award for mystery fiction named for Edgar Allan Poe.
== Summary ==
Jasper, a quarter-halfling, breaks into the retired war mage Benelaius’s home on a dare. He is discovered by Benelaius, who makes him into a servant for a year rather than turning him in. Near the end of his servitude, the town of Ghars is set to host the Grand Council of the Merchant’s Guild, organized by Barthelm Meadowbrock, hosts Grodoveth, an envoy of Azoun married to his cousin, and is said to be haunted by the ghost of Fastred, a bandit. Jasper is sent to meet with Lindavar, a war wizard guest of Benelaius’s, when he discovers Dovo, a thuggish smith’s assistant, beheaded, having been impersonating the ghost. Later, Grodoveth is discovered beheaded in the lost tomb of Fastred, and Vangerdahast orders Benelaius to find the killer. Suspects and inhabitants of Ghars include Mayella Meadowbrok, Rolf, a cooper who rivaled Dovo for Mayella’s affections, Tobald, the mayor, Captain Flim of the Purple Dragons, Doctor Braum, Shortshanks, dwarven owner of the Bold Bard, and Kendra, a traveling adventurer. They discover that Tobald was an agent of the Iron Throne seeking to punish Cormyr for banishing them for a year, having gathered information about trade from Grodoveth and used Dovo to pass it on through lantern signals. Benelaius and Lindavar solve the mystery and expose Tobald’s plan to poison the entire merchant’s guild. He flees into the swamp where he encounters the real ghost of Fastred and drowns. Benelaius blames the murders on Tobald as well, but in reality Grodoveth, in on the scheme, murdered Dovo when he began hinting at the arrangement in public and then was beheaded by a trap in Fastred’s tomb.
==Reception==
Murder in Cormyr was very briefly previewed for the hardcover in Dragon #226, in February 1996, for the paperback in Dragon #248, in June 1998.
Reviews came later that year. Gideon Kibblewhite in English gaming magazine Arcane, issue #9, August 1996, saw it as based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple (perhaps more familiar to an English reviewer) and described it as "certainly better" than its series-mate Murder in Tarsis but "Unfortunately, it is not nearly as clever, involved or funny as it might have been." The fact that "Terry Pratchett did a much better satire of the murder mystery with Feet of Clay" just before D&D's Murder series may not have aided the book's reception. Nevertheless, the review concedes its "strength is simply that it serves as a reminder that there is a certain amount of mileage to be had out of the fantasy whodunnit". It gave a score of 4/10. An uncredited review also appeared in the March 1997 issue of the The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Despite this, Chet Williamson recalled that "the target audience of Forgotten Realms gamers seemed to enjoy it". And they do, with mixed to positive comments over the years at this Candlekeep forum thread and reviews on various other sites. In summary, Murder in Cormyr is said to be entertaining and well plotted, refreshingly different, and demonstrating the potential range of D&D storytelling.
==Index==
===Characters===
===Creatures===
===Locations===
===Organizations===
===Other===
==Appendix==
===Notes===
===External Links===
* 
===References===
Category:Published in 1996
Category:Novels
Category:Works by Chet Williamson
Category:Year of Manuscripts