by Tamara M Bailey
Publisher: Clan Destine Press, 2024
Publisher’s blurb
In Blood & Stone Tomi Cardozo, the top Justice Official in the thriving metropolis of Radaza, has been called to investigate a gruesome murder of a professor who has been mutilated in his own apartment.
She discovers both the professor, and his killer were witches, and therefore illegal residents of the city.
As Tomi is on probation for alleged witch sympathies, she is determined to prove her loyalty to the Justice Department by catching the professor’s killer within the four-day grace period given by the court.
But, as she untangles the knots of the case, Tomi discovers odd similarities between the professor’s death and the unsolved murder of her parents 23 years before.
She soon learns that she is tied to the world of the witches, and that no one in her life, living or dead, is who they appear.
Tomi must decide whether upholding the law is worth exposing the people she loves, while racing to catch a killer who has the one thing she lacks – magic, in Tamara M Bailey’s Blood and Stone.
Review
By Ashleigh Meikle
Blood and Stone tells an intriguing story. Tamara M Bailey weaves together a tale that reflects real-life attitudes and the conflicts that arise between religions and magic.
Magic and witches are illegal in Radaza, so when a professor is murdered, it feels like there is a sort of moral panic about magic and witches – that is, until top Justice Official, Tomi Cardozo finds out that the victim and perpetrator were witches. This doesn’t change people’s opinions though, and Tomi is soon partnered with a young officer called Damian who, like Tomi, has his own secrets. Secrets that hint at Tomi’s past and connection to witches – and how it has affected her life so far.
Tomi’s story is one of secrets and lots of unknowns. The idea that one group needs to be illegal reflects society’s attitudes towards minorities. Like any good crime novel, this one has a time limit – four days – the length of Tomi’s probation. She’s been accused of having witch sympathies, which the higher ups have assumed will affect her judgement. Tomi is determined to solve the professor’s murder, which eerily mirrors the murders of her parents 23 years earlier. One of the things that stood out was the stark hatred of magic and witches in the start to this new series that held back on things that will hopefully be expanded upon as our understanding of Radaza and Tomi’s world grows. What is in this novel made sense, and helped create a magical world touched by crime and a conflict between religion and magic.
This reflected real world attitudes and conflicts between religions and magic, though in our world, and the misunderstandings that conflicts of all sorts can cause. In a crime novel like this, it ensures that a reader never really knows who to trust, because everyone seems to be hiding something – just like Tomi and Damian. It is an engaging novel because it combines fantasy and crime – two elements that may not often cross paths and explores the issue of discrimination in the real world through its treatment of witches. As a reader, this worked because we had the unfamiliarity of a new fantasy world combined with what we know about crime stories. The crime element gave readers something familiar to hold onto whilst exploring a new world.
This is a story of intrigue and believable characters and types of people we may know from real life. Everything came together effectively, showing how combining genres can work. It plays with common themes and tropes but allows them to breathe and form something new that fits the crime fantasy genre.