epub, 14 pages
English language
Published by Subterranean Press.
A goblin with too many pockets and a disturbing affinity for cutlery, a rain-soaked night, four adventurers, a pair of corpses, a junk-drawer knife, some unfortunate taxidermy, and a beleaguered Gatewarden…
These are the primary ingredients in a locked-room mystery that can only be solved by the Territory's most unlikely detective.
Her name is Zyll.
Her eyes are keen, her teeth are sharp, and the chaos of her passing leaves no murder unsolved.
A goblin enters an inn, stumbling into the scene of a murder. A band of thieves surround two of their own lying dead on the floor. While they don't trust each other, which thief of the group is the one who committed the murders?
Free short story ebook from Subterranean Press.
Goblins and Greatcoats was a cute short story murder mystery. I'd imagine it's tough to do a mystery in a limited space. Mechanically, there's barely enough space to even name the suspects, let alone drop enough clues for the reader--so, the thrust of the story is largely unexpected reveals from an expert investigator.
This is a pretty minor detail, but one thing that rubbed me a little bit the wrong way was the playing up of Zyll's foreignness as an additional bit of humor and strangeness about her. Other characters talk with informal contractions, but only Zyll's language is explicitly marked by the narrator. It's done in a way that is hard for me not to read as English as a second language by way of eastern Europe or Russia. To be blunt, it feels awkward at best to have that in a fantasy world that (as far as I …
Goblins and Greatcoats was a cute short story murder mystery. I'd imagine it's tough to do a mystery in a limited space. Mechanically, there's barely enough space to even name the suspects, let alone drop enough clues for the reader--so, the thrust of the story is largely unexpected reveals from an expert investigator.
This is a pretty minor detail, but one thing that rubbed me a little bit the wrong way was the playing up of Zyll's foreignness as an additional bit of humor and strangeness about her. Other characters talk with informal contractions, but only Zyll's language is explicitly marked by the narrator. It's done in a way that is hard for me not to read as English as a second language by way of eastern Europe or Russia. To be blunt, it feels awkward at best to have that in a fantasy world that (as far as I can remember) hasn't really explored linguistics in any way, and so it feels like a missed opportunity for better worldbuilding.
