Randall Garrett 1 hr 7 min read

Sir Pierre Morlaix, secretary to the Count D'Evreux, glances at his wrist watch, three minutes of seven, in an Angevin Empire where the Plantagenets still reign and magic works by strict law.

Randall Garrett's 1964 story is the first Lord Darcy tale, a landmark blend of mystery and alternate-history fantasy. Witty, ingenious, superbly crafted. Read it for the debut of the great forensic sorcerer's world, a murder in a castle of an alternate 20th century where magic is a science, and detection its finest art.

In its time

Published in 1964, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

1 hr 7 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

John Schoenherr