Fantasy is a genre that allows for many kinds of stories within its pages, and the particular blend chosen by Andrew Knighton was a really interesting one: a murder mystery investigated by an old female character whose past comes at play while the bigger wheels of the world are moving; a novel with an excellent character work that also manages to keep the bigger political lines in the picture to deliver a well-executed plot.

Unteholz is a city that keeps its standalone status due to its wealth, trade and the difficult equilibrium established between religious powers; an equilibrium that is broken when Beatrice Saimon, religious leader of the Mother Sky cult, is charged with the murder of her husband, a wealthy merchant. An apparently straightforward case, that ends with the execution of Beatrice by the blade of Headsman Lena Sturm; however, the more Lena thinks about the case, the more she doubts about it, starting an investigation that will take her to examine the wealthy and the powerful of Unteholz. At the same time, outside forces use Beatrice's death as the excuse to rally against Unteholz, a siege incoming that leaves Lena with not much time to discover the truth.

At the center of our story, we have a deliciously complex older female character, Lena Sturm, investigating the murder that condemned Beatrice. As we can guess from the very first pages, while she's competent and intelligent, she totally lacks the soft skills required to enter many places that could help with the investigation; but as we delve deep into her past, we can even understand why, and how she ended as executioner in Unteholz, a position shunned by many in the city. A complicated character that you might not totally like as she has some flaws, as she's neither white nor black, but a shade of grey.
She starts to work with a young beggar called Deppel, who acts a bit as the counterpart to the figure of Lena: he has those soft skills she lack, certain knowledge of the criminal world; in general, it balances the pair, making them a good duo for the investigation. It's true that they still held secrets from each other, but the dynamic between Lena and Deppel is another door to Lena's past.

While the plot initially follows the structure of a murder mystery, I appreciated how Knighton goes in a more ambitious direction, weaving a second thread around the politics of Unteholz and the cities around, a bigger subplot that eventually converges with the main mystery: we go from a smaller idea to the epic scale that is usually attached with the genre. As our characters continue their investigation, we get to explore and learn more about the different classes that are part of Unteholz society, the political and religious power struggles; all really organically.

The Executioner's Blade is a super enjoyable novel, a well-executed blend of genres with an excellent character work at its core that keeps you glued to the book until the last page. Another superb novel by Andrew Knighton!