The Grief of Stones

Katherine Addison returns to the world of The Goblin Emperor and The Witness for the Dead with The Grief of Stones, the second Thara Celehar book. Thara is still working as a Witness for the Dead, the priest whose job is to communicate with the recently deceased on behalf of the living.

The book is structured as several smaller cases that interweave rather than one big mystery. A children’s home, a missing relative, a series of deaths that may or may not be connected.

Addison’s prose is patient. The Elflands setting feels lived in rather than performed. Thara himself, quiet, conscientious, a little melancholy, is one of the more distinctive protagonists in current fantasy.

New readers can technically start here, but the experience is much richer if you’ve read The Witness for the Dead first. The Goblin Emperor sets up the world but isn’t strictly required.