A fast-paced mystery with an intriguing fantasy world and some strong female leads
Four Dead Queens is a clever why and whodunnit which plays with perspective, world building and mystery tropes in a fun, occasionally bumpy ride for the reader.
The kingdom of Quadara with its four unique regions that manage to co-exist through the dedication of their four queens, who each advocate for their respective birthplaces while trying to achieve good results for all. This delicate balance between four brilliant, strong women, which like all compromises sometimes pleases no one, is threatened by the determined attempts of a killer who is bumping off the queens in gory fashion. Into this mess catapults Keralie the black market thief, on the run from her nefarious employer Mackiel. She is accompanied by the attractive messenger Varin, whose stolen (by Keralie) digital discs have been implanted in Keralie's brain. Suddenly Keralie is having visions that reveal not only the Four Queen's deaths but possibly the answers to who and why is killing them.
Schole has much to juggle here and the world building suffers from the breathless pace of the chapters detailing Keralie and Varin's race to find the discs and possibly save at least one Queen, and the activity within the Palace where those very Queens are being picked off. This reader was willing to suspend some questions about the very different natures and operations of the Quadrants, because of the building tension in the face of the queen's shocking fates. Each of these women is a fascinating, difficult, charismatic character who struggles with the heavy burden of the expectations and restrictions placed upon them while struggling for fulfillment and happiness. Kudos to Scholte for providing such strong and memorable female characters in a fresh and clever twist in the crowded and sometimes predictable YA fantasy genre. Losing each one of those queens pains the reader so the emotional investment in the book grows incrementally to an unbearably suspenseful pitch. Scholte and the publisher have the courage to make Four Dead Queens a standalone work, so the reader knows whatever happens by the book's end, it really is over for Queens, Keralie and the reader.
The kingdom of Quadara with its four unique regions that manage to co-exist through the dedication of their four queens, who each advocate for their respective birthplaces while trying to achieve good results for all. This delicate balance between four brilliant, strong women, which like all compromises sometimes pleases no one, is threatened by the determined attempts of a killer who is bumping off the queens in gory fashion. Into this mess catapults Keralie the black market thief, on the run from her nefarious employer Mackiel. She is accompanied by the attractive messenger Varin, whose stolen (by Keralie) digital discs have been implanted in Keralie's brain. Suddenly Keralie is having visions that reveal not only the Four Queen's deaths but possibly the answers to who and why is killing them.
Schole has much to juggle here and the world building suffers from the breathless pace of the chapters detailing Keralie and Varin's race to find the discs and possibly save at least one Queen, and the activity within the Palace where those very Queens are being picked off. This reader was willing to suspend some questions about the very different natures and operations of the Quadrants, because of the building tension in the face of the queen's shocking fates. Each of these women is a fascinating, difficult, charismatic character who struggles with the heavy burden of the expectations and restrictions placed upon them while struggling for fulfillment and happiness. Kudos to Scholte for providing such strong and memorable female characters in a fresh and clever twist in the crowded and sometimes predictable YA fantasy genre. Losing each one of those queens pains the reader so the emotional investment in the book grows incrementally to an unbearably suspenseful pitch. Scholte and the publisher have the courage to make Four Dead Queens a standalone work, so the reader knows whatever happens by the book's end, it really is over for Queens, Keralie and the reader.