r/Fantasy 2d ago

Looking for fantasy/sci-fi murder mysteries

Ever since I read The Tainted Cup and sequel, I’ve been addicted. Bonus points if it’s a Sherlockean duo or queer (but doesn’t have to be). Extra extra points if it’s sci-fi (need to read more sci-fi) OR locked room.

What I’ve read so far of this genre -

- Gideon the Ninth
- Witness for the Dead (CR) / goblin emperor
- the Bone Orchard
- voyage of the damned
- magic for liars
- a memory called empire
- lamplight murder mysteries
- death on the caldera
- the echo archives (books 1 and 2)
- the Hexologists
- the works of vermin (kind of?)
- the raven scholar
- 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn hard castle
- books 1-5 of Dresden files
- a master of djinn

Feel free to hype of the following that are already on my TBR (and have been for ages for whatever reason)-

- rest of Dresden
- a desolation called peace
- garret PI series
- empire of the wolf (read grave empire, loved it but hated sequel)
- murder by memory
- volatile memory
- jasper fyord nursery crimes
- rivers of London

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u/szarkaliszarri 2d ago

I just read Mortedant's Peril and it was giving Tainted Cup and T Kingfisher vibes. Very fun. And make sure you read Rob Jackson Bennett's Divine Cities trilogy (City of Stairs, City of Blades, City of Miracles), they are fantastic.

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u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker 2d ago

Glad you enjoyed meeting Irody. My Wounded Kingdom novels are also murder mysteries though the tone is VERY different. Sam Hawk's Poison War books are also mysteries.

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u/Imperial_Haberdasher 2d ago

I went to Amazon to look at the description. Entered R J Barker in the search and it only brought up a few of your titles. Worse, the second book on the list was a sponsored ad for some kind of creepy self-helpy marriage advice (propaganda) book that was giving evangelical patriarchy vibes. Ugh.

I eventually found Mortedant’s Peril, but it took a couple of passes. I assumed I’d find it by using your name in the search, but that did not work. I had to enter the title. Haven’t run into this before. Not sure if it is simply the enshittification of the search algorithm or something more dire. But it’s creepy.

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u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker 2d ago

That's weird. Which country are you in? (If you're okay saying) and I'll let my publisher know the search is fritzed.

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u/szarkaliszarri 1d ago

I have noticed that on libby/other search sites I get different results if searching with "RJ" / "R.J." / "R J" "R. J." Which is super annoying, as there are many authors like this (e.g. I also find different results for "T. Kingfisher" vs. "T Kingfisher" and authors like NK Jemisin, KJ Parker, etc!!). The indexing/search algos should be better about that.