Dragon Precinct

What do you get when you cross a buddy-cop movie with Lord of the Rings? A fun novel by Keith DeCandido, that's what.

A group of questers - a hero, an elf, a dwarf, two halflings, a priest, and a barbarian - walk into a bar. Sounds like the start of a bad joke, but when they start getting murdered, it's up to two detectives to get to the bottom of why, and what this has to do with another investigation into a bunch of bad black-market glamours going around the city.

The book reads a lot like a media tie-in novel; all the characters are put back more or less where they started at the end of the book, but given that that type of novel is what DeCandido usually writes, it's quite understandable. A good, fun, quick read, though.

What a great concept–take a typical D&D-ish city, filled with Elves, Half-Elves, Halflings, Dwarves, Magic Users, etc. and throw in a typical Law & Order-ish police force investigating a variety of crimes. Most notably, a serial killer knocking off legendary members of a band of heroes embarking on an epic quest.

Not the greatest fantasy novel I've read in the last few months–but such a fun one, I hated for it to end. The detectives (and most of the supporting cast) were a lotta fun, and I could spend a lot more time with them, just bantering at the tavern after their shifts, much less working their cases.