Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword
by Tee Morris
is a melding of two of my favorite genres: traditional fantasy and the noir, hard-boiled detective tales of such characters as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. In many ways you get what you expect here: a tough but endearing detective, plenty of buxom babes, and a colorful cast of villains, some dim-witted, others cunning. Taking place in 1920's Chicago, the kicker and what sets this novel apart is the fact that our hero, Billibub Baddings, is a four foot dwarf from another world.
Seeking to save his own world from a plethora of powerful talismans that have fallen into the wrong hands, Billibub makes a final, desperate attempt to destroy them by casting them into a magical portal. In the process, he is also sucked into the portal; he figures his life is worth the price. But instead of dying, Billibub finds himself transported to our own world. Later, as the story unfolds, he learns that the talismans, like himself, live on.
As the story begins, we find Billibub already settled into his new life; the above is given as back-story. He faces many of the daily headaches we might expect: finding the next client, paying the rent, keeping his secretary and assistant happy. But the story really begins when the rich and beautiful Julia Lesinger enters Billibub's office. Our dwarven detective is hired to investigate the death of Julia's boyfriend, a man who Billibub soon learns has mob ties and, more ominously, a link to an artifact found in a Egyptian burial dig that is a bit out of place. Billibub takes the case, following the trail until it leads him to the artifact that is the Singing Sword, one of the talismans he thought destroyed when he hurled it into the portal.
I have to mention that I listened to this novel in audio format. Hailed as the first ever podiobook—that is, a reading embellished by sound effects and an ensemble of voice actors portraying the novel's different characters—it was an absolute joy consuming it in this fashion. The production quality is top-notch, the voices excellent and, in most cases, very fitting, and the use of sound effects was just right.
Whether you read or listen, you have to consider that much of the humor and storytelling is tongue-in-cheek; Morris embraces many traditional fantasy tropes, but they exist only as embellishments and oftentimes for humor as the principal story takes place in the "real" world. But, of course, even that has its own set of stereotypes, especially as the story follows the typical formula of most hard-boiled detective novels. But Morris injects plenty of dwarven wit into the telling that I found myself laughing out loud more than a few times.
I do have to wonder why Morris chose a name so like Bilbo Baggins of The Lord of the Rings fame, but that's a minor qualm. This is the kind of audio book that I'd listen to again, and I've already told my wife she needs to hear it, too.
Tee Morris has podcasted many of his other books. He was the man behind The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy, a writing advice podcast which is now defunct, and he was both a contributor and editor of the books in The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy
series. The next novel in the0 Billibub Baddings Mystery series is The Case of the Pitcher's Pendant
.
Join my reader's group and get The Hall of Riddles (An Alchemancer Prequel) and The Assassin's Dilemma (An Assassin Without a Name Prequel) as a welcome gift.