Join me as I review Murder in Tarsis by John Maddox Roberts live! Share your thoughts on this first novel in the Dragonlance Classics series, released by Wizards of the Coast on October 1, 1999. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/48RPymI 

Who killed Ambassador Bloodarrow?

When the Lord of Tarsis finds himself with a politically volatile murder on his hands, he turns to the three most expendable inhabitants of the city of a solution. A mercenary, a poet-assassin, and a thief might not be everyone’s first choice for detectives. But they find they’re quite good at bringing murderers to justice.

Perhaps a little too good . . .

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Misham, Frostkolt the 18th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of Murder in Tarsis by John Maddox Roberts. I would like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members and Patreon patrons, and invite you to consider becoming a member or patron. You can even pick up Dragonlance media using my affiliate links. This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.

This is a very interesting novel that I was not anticipating. It starts with an aristocrat hiring an assassin, Nistur, to kill a mercenary, Ironwood. As Nistur approached the merc in a bar, he offered him a job to get him to leave with him. Ironwood agreed and left, but Nistur admitted to being hired to kill him, and they began their fight. Nistur is honorable, and a poet at heart, but he is effective as an assassin, however Ironwood is nearly equal to the task of killing him. However, he succumbs to his knee giving out and as Nistur goes in for the kill, Ironwood punches him with the Knot of Thanalus. This casts a magical geas on Nistur which forces him to serve Ironwood. They are spied on by  thief Shellring who is hired to take the now nigh unconscious Ironwood to a healer. 

They arrive at the healer, Stunbog’s residence in Harbor town. He lives with the barbarian woman Nysra. They take care of the mercenary who suffers from a slow acting poison from a black dragon bite. Then we cut over to a council meeting between the Lord of Tarsis and his counselors. They are discussing the coming threat of the new chieftain of the nomads of the Plains of Dust, Kyaga Strongbow. His representatives arrive and make unbelievable demands of them, but being shrewd merchants and bankers they begin to barter. The chieftain will arrive in two days, so they must come to an accord, or he will sack the city. That night as they entertain the guests the lord of Tarsis spews dissent into the nomads’ ears, trying to turn them against one another.

The following night the representative is discovered murdered, creating a pretty big problem for the Lord of Tarsis. As Kyaga arrives he gives them five days to discover and hand over the killer or killers or the town is going to be sacked. The Lord of Taris is beside himself as each of his councilors would turn against him to take his seat, so he can’t trust anyone from Tarsis. Meanwhile Ironwood and Nistur are trying ot find mercenary work with the city for the oncoming war, but Ironwood has a reputation for being cursed, due to the Dragon bite. So no one will hire them, It ends in a fight with them locked in jail. They use Shellring the thief to send word to the Lord of Tarsis taht they are in fact acclaimed detectives and they would discover the murderer for him. With no other option the lord grants them his seal and sets them to work. They find no real information on the city wall, but discover the ambassador was killed with a wire around his neck and hauled up to the statue where his body was found. 

Now they search the town for information and an old Aghar dwarf named Granny Toadflower asked to meet them in her home. It happens to be in the worst part of town, so they all go together, hoping there is safety in numbers. Once there they are told to seek the lightning lizard, beware the musician and the lying eyes. This only confounds them, and when they leave they are confronted by two rival gangs working together to kill them. They fought the unskilled kids off and questioned one who told them that they were hired by a masked man. All the nobles in Tarsis wear masks, then the group makes note and continues to the nomads camp to question the chieftains. They learned that some of them are more willing to turn from Kyaga than others, but upon returning to Stunbog, they realised the shaman has a sigil on his hand. As Stunbog researched the sigil, Mysra was being visited by her long thought dead brother. 

The investigation was returned to and they questioned many nobles, only to see as much potential of backstabbing as any nomad, and the sudden death of Gulak Horsetamer, being hung in Melkar’s courtyard put him at the top of  the convenient killer list. Kyaga demanded to have the murderer on the morrow or war will fall on Tarsis. The group learns of Mysra and Stunbog being captured and sent to the prisons for engaging with the enemy, Mysra’s brother, and the group goes into the sewers to search for the dwarves to get into the prisons. They learn of a massive lizard in the tunnels they may have to fight off, if it wakes as they tunnel under the prison. They get Stunbog and Mysra out and the lizard wakes. Ironwood ends up defeating it and it melts off his black dragon armor that was stuck on him as if by a curse. 

They all realize the truth after Ironwood shares his history and Stunbog reveals the effect of the sigil. They confront the Lord of Tarsis and Kyaga as they are delivering Melkas as the murderer, even though he denies it. It turned out that Ironwood was joined by a bard named Boreas when they went to fight the small dragon years back. Ironwood was left for dead and took the skin to make armor. Boreas took the heart and used it to increase his charisma and authority, then used the sigil to change his appearance. He posed as the shaman heralding his own legend, and the councilor who hired Nistur to kill Ironwood. Then he killed his own men to frame the Tarsinians so he could take the city over and investigate the library underneath which would allow him to control more than just the nomads. 

But in true Scooby-Doo fashion, he was discovered in the final moments by our heroes and revealed. Then a massive Black dragon that has been searching for its child found the heart that Boreas had and took it and him away, as the nomads and Tarsinians begin battling and the heroes leave town to fight corruption elsewhere. It was a fun story, but as soon as we learned about Ironwood’s past, it revealed everything. I like these little mysteries a lot, and would even welcome a second installment. The characters were all believable and entertaining, even though it was really short, just a couple hundred pages. 

If you are a fan of mysteries, dragonlance, or one-off novellas set in Tarsis, I would highly recommend this novel. You could do a lot worse and it’s a fun read.

And that’s it for my review of Murder in Tarsis by John Maddox Roberts. What did you think of the twist? Do you think dragons can smell their children’s hearts and skin? And finally, do you know of any other great Dragonlance mystery stories? Feel free to email me at [email protected] or leave a comment below. 

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