Paladin’s Hope by T. Kingfisher – Review

Published: October 9, 2021

Publisher: Red Wombat Studios

Series: The Saint of Steel #3

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Pages: 305 (Kindle)

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

Synopsis:
Piper is a lich-doctor, a physician who works among the dead, determining causes of death for the city guard’s investigations. It’s a peaceful, if solitary profession…until the day when he’s called to the river to examine the latest in a series of mysterious bodies, mangled by some unknown force.

Galen is a paladin of a dead god, lost to holiness and no longer entirely sane. He has long since given up on any hope of love. But when the two men and a brave gnole constable are drawn into the web of the mysterious killer, it’s Galen’s job to protect Piper from the traps that await them.

He’s just not sure if he can protect Piper from the most dangerous threat of all…

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I am now officially caught up with this particular series! I’ve enjoyed each of the three books currently out, but the first one is still probably my favorite. This installment was… good.

This time around, we finally get Galen’s love story which was delightful and just as awkward and filled with self-flagellation as the previous two. It all starts when Galen is called in to investigate a body in the river with mysterious wounds. There he meets a gnole constable named Earstripe and Piper, a lich doctor. Lich doctors are essentially medical examiners and are called in to autopsy the dead and provide testimony in court cases. After more bodies turn up mysteriously mutilated, the trio heads upstream where they find a manor house full of booby-trapped rooms, but it appears to be constructed like a wonder engine. They are subsequently locked in, for scientific purposes, of course.

I like Galen and Piper, but Earstripe might be the real favorite here because he successfully puts up with their incessant pining for the ENTIRE book. I get that the paladin’s all feel similarly guilty and fearful that they’ll hurt anyone close to them, but you’d think they’d learn from their brethren who’ve found love! I kept internally screaming “JUST HURRY UP AND KISS ALREADY”. Theirs was a painfully slow dance toward one another and then right when you think they’ll be together, Galen shoves his foot in his mouth up to the hip joint.

Overall, I liked the story well enough but being trapped in the rat maze of death really limited the scenic capacity of this particular installment. It was exciting, but I ended up just wanting them to escape already, dammit! I felt a bit impatient with the whole book. The ending however, was a stunner and I’m awaiting news of potential future books. I think it’s been tentatively stated that this will be a five book series in total.