Thraxas

Thraxas is a private investigator in the city-state of Turai, and he would like it known that he was once a sorcerer's apprentice, once a soldier, and is now fat, broke, permanently thirsty and behind on the rent for the room above the Avenging Axe. He takes work from anyone: cheating spouses, missing jewellery, and, on this occasion, a young noblewoman whose father wishes a matter cleared up before the Chariot Race, which rapidly becomes a murder charge, a stolen artefact and a considerable quantity of dwa, the drug that is quietly ruining the city. His only reliable ally is Makri, a barmaid of mixed orc, elf and human descent who fought her way out of the gladiator pits, carries several swords, and wants nothing from Turai except admission to the Imperial University, which does not admit women or orcs. Millar, writing as Martin Scott, plays the hard-boiled detective register absolutely straight in a fantasy city of guilds, sorcerers and municipal corruption, and the comedy comes from the collision rather than from jokes. It is short, sardonic, and considerably sharper about poverty and prejudice than its cheerful surface suggests.