A guide for the best high-handed insults.

Estevar Borros is one of the legendary sword-fighting magistrates known as the Greatcoats and the king's personal investigator of the supernatural.
He answers the call of monks of an abbey fighting over claims of a new pantheon arising following the murder of the old gods.

With his trusty, noble steed called Impetuous, Estevar must act as the crucible - sorting the falsities from the truth amidst demons, mad monks, and raving factions. 
It reads as a historical, justice-seeking, supernatural, dark fantasy. So, there’s something for everyone.

Do you need to read The Greatcoats series before this?
Yes, if you want the full backstory and history.
However, Castell does a brilliant job of giving you a brief overview of what happened and previous characters and stories are treated as legends in Estevar’s own adventures.
So, in that respect I think this stands quite well on its own.

The tone appears quite pretentious and is quite lethargic and long-winded. It’s a lot more similar in tone to the last book of the Greatcoats series, but with slightly less humour as there’s less characters to bounce off.
That’s not to say Castell doesn’t deliver some high-handed, hilarious gems. Especially insults.

“Rest assured, I will pay a reasonable fee for its loan, especially if I decide to stain this blade by carving your worthless hide, you pitiful, prancing popinjay, you crust of defecation stuck to the heel of better men's boots, so lacking in substance that you cannot even stink with distinction.”

Expect a lot of philosophical musings on faith, belief, and the power of, well, power.
Ultimately, I always find these kind of debates stimulating and fascinating in fantasy settings, but I know many others find it dry and a topic of self-indulgence.

“I have observed such rifts forming, theological differences festering into factionalism that tears religious communities apart and sets at each other the lay people whose own lives intertwine with those of the so-called faith, for all they never started the disputes and rarely understand the matters.”

Overall, quite slow for what one might expect to be a sword-wielding fantasy. Instead, expect a lot more clue-seeking, speculating, and judging.
Oh, and quite a few comments about Estevar being fat.

I would recommend this if you enjoyed the Justice of Kings by Richard Swan.

Thank you to Quercus Books for providing an arc in exchange for a review!