Book Review: The Blood of Crows by Alex C. Pierce 

Tensions are already high in the walled realm of Lenmar, and when the nobility start dying with no trace of magic that isn’t from the victims, Ren immediately becomes the prime, and only suspect. Hunted by magic-eating Inquisitors and the Captain of the Royal Guard, his life becomes one of flight and fear through a realm on the brink of civil war.

All Ren wants to do is stop a serial killer, clear his name, find his mentor, and protect the people he cares about.

To do that, he’ll have to pull one more high-stakes heist— And steal the proof he needs from the very people who want to catch him.

In fact, I had little to no expectations going into this, for it was my first fantasy heist, and an unexpected one at that! For about a year I had been curating a series of heist themed novels ready to theme a month around them, and then the old mood reading popped in to disrupt that schedule! However, I am so very glad that it did, for I would’ve missed out on what will surely be one of the most enjoyable reads of 2023.

The novel is centred around semi-professional thief Ren, whom we are introduced to in the midst of a job to lift a book from the imperial library of Lenmar. To make things tricky, as indeed all heists need, Ren has to overcome a maze-like trap of magical sigils that protect this coveted tome. Whilst I didn’t quite fully understand the magic system at first, to begin with this enticing escapade swiftly drew me in and had me rooting for Ren and his companion on crime, Martin.

Ren is an engaging main character, with unexpected depth that emerges throughout this tale, and I thought he was a very capable lead. Whilst he does have a witty side to him, Ren is also different to the usual quipster fare one would imagine in a heist. He is rather out of his depth in a lot of ways, and this provides a very human side to him, as well as the necessary emotion as Ren finds himself alone amidst much turmoil and murder.

The murders are really where the story itself begins, as it transitions into a hybrid murder mystery novel, Ren having to go on the run to solve the conspiracy against him. The interludes where we see these murders occur do take this novel into darker territory in fact, being quite graphic, however it never falls into grimdark fare with Alex holding a steady hand on the authorial tiller.

The worldbuilding that takes place here also really surprised me by becoming one of my favourite parts. Why did it surprise me you might ask? Well, it’s because in comparison to many other chonkers I read, the world shown to us is incredibly small. However, this does not work against it, in fact it enhances the narrative in my opinion because it focuses on the story it should be, Ren trying to solve this conspiracy rather than fixing its gaze on a far-off future. Alex knows when to interweave some intrigue into proceedings, with several hints of where this world will go, but it never overpowers the fundamental focus of the novel, a fun heisting thriller.

Now there are some areas it didn’t quite work for me, in particular the end of the novel where it felt like things fell into more tropey territory, and the twist that occurred with the unveiling of the murderer did feel a little unearnt. Suddenly we had this almost pantomime-ish villain come into play and I didn’t quite connect to their motivations because we were introduced to them so late in the game which was a real shame.

There was also a sense that we were mere observers throughout the novel but with investigation or mystery-based narratives, I want to feel that it’s something I as a reader could have solved, that the book somehow invites us to become part of the narrative. Its similar in a way to how I felt about Justice of Kings, and a common problem it seems with mystery-based narratives. I can understand why as it must surely be a difficult balancing act to try and make the central mystery solvable without being too easy to work out in advance of the reveal.

The final small critique to be made was in some of the character development, in particular the relationship between Haim and Ren. Haim is a character that Ren meets whilst stuck in the middle of this conspiracy caper, and whilst the general interplay was very amiable, the direction their relationship took was a very typical one which was slightly disappointing. In general, this book is quite a typical heist book, it doesn’t especially break the mould. However, it does the typical very very well to the extent that I was able to forgive its use of the stereotypical for the most part. Overall, my overwhelming sense whilst reading this was one of glee and entrancement. I was taken in by the narrative and thoroughly enjoyed my ride.

To talk briefly about the particular way I read this book, I definitely believe this was one that benefitted from being an audio rather than a physical read. Perhaps that is something I’d be interested in exploring later because it is interesting how one could have a different experience with the same book but in different formats. I think it worked so well in audio because the relative pace of the novel could match nicely with the pace of the narrator, the power of which was at the tips of my fingers ( or more correctly the audible app, but its cooler to imagine I have magical powers to speed up audio so don’t tell anyone ok!)