Twisting the Rope

This is the second installment in R. A. MacAvoy’s Black Dragon Duology, and it is set about five years from the events of “Tea with the Black Dragon.” Our two main characters, Mayland Long and Martha Macnamara, are touring the country with Martha’s traditional Celtic band when one of the band members is found dead, hanging from a hand twisted grass rope made by two of the other band members. Was it murder? Was it suicide? Our characters need to find the truth before the police make some wrong assumptions. Although this book is classified as fantasy, there are few fantastic elements to the story. It is mostly a detective story, a murder mystery. However, the wonderful characterizations and descriptive scenes make it fascinating. I stayed up way past my usual bedtime to finish the last half of the book! The band members make an excellent supporting cast of characters, all of whom are interesting and have some depth. Like “Tea” it is a very different and unique story, and that is something that fantasy needs more of. In a way, it isn’t really very dependent on “Tea” as it only shares the main characters from that work.