A Study in Sorcery (Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy)

Rating:
Summary: A faithful pastiche
Review: The author Randall Garrett wrote a series of novels and short stories about an alternate universe where Richard the Lion Hearted lived to a ripe old age, and his Plantangent descendents rule over a just and noble Anglo-French empire. Oh, and the laws of magic have been developed into basis of all technology and commerce. The orginal series was a lot of fun, full of humor, some decent mysteries, and tributes to a host of fictional dectectives. The central character is Lord D'arcy, a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes. After Garrett's death, Michael Kurland was commissioned to continue the series, with this book and "Ten Little Wizards".

In "A Study in Sorcery", Kurland successfully continues the tales of D'arcy and Master Sean, his forensic mage. A murder in a locked room in an abandoned Aztec temple in the imperial domain of New England (North America in our world) threatens the peace and stablilty of the world. Our intrepid heroes are dispatched to solve the case, with the assistance of Garrett's Doc Savage-type character, Lord John Quezcotl. Plenty of intrigue, romantic liasons with beautiful female spys, and danger from fearsome savages (my personal favorite fearsome savage, Chief He-Who-Laughs-Last, MA Oxford). Try it, you'll like it.