A bumbling city guard. A ghastly murder. Terror in the Sultan’s Realm. A grisly crime and a grieving widow plunge Shoki, a lowly city guard—who never wanted the job (thanks mother and father) and is described by his superiors, in their kinder moments, as blundering—into an investigation that involves no less than one who claimed himself a Sultan of the Realm.Shoki is sure he’s got it … Realm.
Shoki is sure he’s got it right. He knows who the killer is.
But does he have the courage to defy his commanders, buck a system that hasn’t the least leeway for independent initiative, and bring a killer to justice?
If you like exotic settings and well-rounded characters in your epic fantasy, then you’ll love “Blood of a Sultan”. Grab this exciting short story now!
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Blood of a Sultan (The Divided Sultanate, #0), my first read from author Fuad Baloch. A well written short read, the characters are well-developed with an attention-grabbing storyline. I’m a character reader, I get into the characters. Who and what they are. Why they do the things they do. The things that make the reader get invested into the characters and thereby the story. I’ll be reading more from this author! (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 – July 24, 2018).
A nice little mystery in an ancient Arabian setting
Audiobook: 4 stars overall, 4 stars story, 4 stars narration
First of all, the narrator Sheila Daly Payson did an excellent job. She seems very comfortable with the exotic character names and terminology inspired by ancient Arabia. Her voice is very pleasant to my ear, and she is reasonably good at making each character’s voice distinctive. I think that she did a very good job of interpreting this short story into a 38-minute audiobook.
This is a short mystery story with a little bit of blood and gore. I have heard that the rest of the series is in the fantasy genre, but there is no magic nor supernatural things in this story. It is basically a detective story set in a land like the ancient Middle East. The main character Shoki is a young man trying to impress his boss and mentor, who is the best police detective in the land. Shoki and the mentor are called in to solve a bloody murder. The characters of Shoki and his mentor were well developed. I also enjoyed the vivid sensory descriptions of the setting.
A few points of the story bothered me a bit. First, one detail of Shoki’s reaction to the body threw off my guesses about the murderer. Secondly, although the manner in which the murderer was identified was clever, the final reveal was underwhelming to me. Finally, I also feel like the story could have been improved by being a little longer.
I received a free audiobook copy from the author via Authors Direct, and I voluntarily wrote this honest review.
Blood of a Sultan
(The Divided Sultanate 0)
by Fuad Baloch
This is an audible book I requested and the review is voluntary. This is a prequel I am assuming because it was short and seemed more to introduce the main characters. It is a short murder mystery and the inspectors that came out to investigate reminded me of a Sherlock and Holmes but this Holmes was busy dreaming about the Princess he saw go by in the cart. Someone pulled the veil down so he was unable to oogle any longer! No, the book is not in America, obviously, and may not be in this time period or this world. Regardless, I enjoyed this glimpse into the world and possible future books, the mystery, the writing style, and the world building. He did all this in a short story too.
The narration was excellent for this story.