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This book does one of my least favorite things and creates conflict by having one character knowingly lie to another character, and then continue the lie for an extended period while understanding that doing so is only making the situation worse. I’m not opposed to dishonest characters, it’s just that it’s far more interesting to me when characters are deceiving themselves as well. Otherwise I end up rolling my eyes and thinking “come the fuck on my dude” and it makes it hard to root for them, and I don’t read romance novels to /not root for the characters/.

The world building in this is great and generally was far more interesting to me than the angsty back and forth trust issues of the central romance. Rusty in particular felt a bit empty on the page; his sister seems to exist just to float in and out of his life to give advice, and his very strained relationship with his parents isn’t used at all to reveal anything else about his character or how how handles relationships, which felt like a missed opportunity. Niles, for all that he became a bit tedious after a while, was understandable, and all the sections with his job and his dad helped him feel like an entire person.

I will probably read the sequel at some point because I assume it’s about Niles’ best friend, and who doesn’t want to read a book about a gay dance instructor on a cruise ship who sends his bestie sex toys as presents? (Goals, tbh)

This novel doesn't follow the same character as The Goblin Emperor, but builds up that same world. It is a crime fiction in a fantasy setting and not a regular ole fantasy novel (you know, the ones that start with “Harry y'er a chosen one!”).

I really liked the main character, it made me think a lot of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee or Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael. He's a Witness For The Dead, as such he can “see” the last thoughts of the recently deceased, and he can fight ghuls. His “normal” cases relate mostly to ending inheritance disputes or finding tombstones, but sometimes, when an unknown, mysterious young woman washes up on the shore of the canal, he's called on to see what he can learn about her last moments… and if it shows that she was the victim of a murder, he's got to solve it. I also liked the setting, instead of seeing the court of the emperor, you see how his subjects live. There are a multitude of influences in the worldbuilding, it made me think of a late-19th century Japan—full of modern wonders (tramways, zeppelin factories!) along with a deep spiritual grounding of the characters, and a very stratified society. And lots of tea drinking.

The book was a fast read, the only problem being all the elven or goblin names to remember.