Blood and Stone: A Radazan Mystery by Tamara M Bailey

Title: Blood and Stone: A Radazan Mystery

Author: Tamara M Bailey

Genre: Fantasy/Crime

Publisher: Clan Destine Press

Published: 1^st July 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 254

Price: $34.95

Synopsis: In Blood & Stone Tomi Cardozo, the top Justice Official in the thriving metropolis of Radaza, has been called to investigate a gruesome murder of a professor who has been mutilated in his own apartment.

She discovers both the professor, and his killer were witches, and therefore illegal residents of the city.

As Tomi is on probation for alleged witch sympathies, she is determined to prove her loyalty to the Justice Department by catching the professor’s killer within the four-day grace period given by the court.

But, as she untangles the knots of the case, Tomi discovers odd similarities between the professor’s death and the unsolved murder of her parents 23 years before.

She soon learns that she is tied to the world of the witches, and that no one in her life, living or dead, is who they appear.

Tomi must decide whether upholding the law is worth exposing the people she loves, while racing to catch a killer who has the one thing she lacks – magic, in Tamara M Bailey‘s Blood & Stone.

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Radaza is a city where magic and religion are at odds. Witches are hunted, and said to be evil. They’re not trusted, and constantly monitored by TADOW, an organisation determined to ensure the safety of humans from witches. When Tomi Cardozo is called to the murder of a professor, things start to unravel. The professor and his killer were witches. It shouldn’t matter who they were, but in Radaza it does. Because in Radaza, witches are illegal residents.

As Tomi investigates, she’s also been put on probation because of accusations that she is sympathetic to witches. Which means she now has a four-day grace period to find out what has happened, and who, if anyone, is feeding information to an enemy. Doing so will mean proving her loyalty to the Justice Department – but how can she when it feels like everyone is working against her, and she has her own secrets and past to contend with?

Tomi is human, and she is connected to the world of witches. Everything and everyone she knows, whether alive or dead, has been hiding things from her, presumably to keep her safe.

As this is the beginning of a new series, I think there will be more to come in terms of characters, the world and the laws that Tamara has used to create the world. It’s a world where religion and magic are in conflict, and where things are not quite what they seem. Throughout the novel, I was never sure who to trust. Everyone, including Tomi, has secrets. They bubble along throughout much of the novel to keep the reader engaged. Because delivering the answers right away would not be satisfying. It combines magic, fantasy, and crime in an intriguing combination that works. It draws on what readers know about crime, and delivers it within a world full of unknowns and magic. It is also a world where there’s division and discrimination. Witches are the ones who are the target of discrimination, and I felt were stand-ins for everyone who faces some sort of discrimination today.

In doing so, Tamara has created a believable world filled with the types of characters and people we might encounter in real life. They populate their own world with its own rules and having its own elements that come together to make the world work effectively and coherently. It has crucial world building that develops across the novel, and that I feel like will be expanded on throughout the series. Particularly the secrets that bubble along throughout and what we learn about Tomi’s past. The thing with a series is that until it ends, we aren’t going to get all of our questions answered, if we do. Crime and fantasy is an interesting combination, and not one that I see often. It deals with how people fight power and corruption, themes that are relevant in any crime novel amidst a world of magic.

This is a story that is filled with intrigue and mystery, where the beats of a crime novel are hit well. Every crime novel will play with the common themes and tropes of the genre, but it is always in how the individual characters and plot use them that determines how effective they are. They’re combined with magic and fantasy in this book. Whilst it kicks off like you’d expect a good crime novel to, with the body dropping, or the crime being committed, but with tinges of magic and hints that we’re not in our world. It takes the systems of justice we have and plays with them, tweaking them to work for the novel and series. Ultimately, it feels like everyone – whether they’re part of the justice department or part of the society, has ulterior motives.

Overall, this is a book that I think will have appeal and be interesting for people who like their crime with a bit of a twist. It has a time limit on finding out what is going on as well, which helps to increase the tension that the characters are facing throughout the story. It’s an interesting start to a series that I hope people will enjoy, and where I hope things hinted at in the first book will be built on nicely.