The Sword and Laser discussion

While I wouldn’t classify this book overall as a ‘whodunnit’ there is, obviously, an investigative aspect to the story.

I once heard it said that the best time for a reader to solve a mystery in a book is a couple of pages or even a couple of paragraphs before the author makes the grand reveal themselves. That way you feel rewarded for having paid attention, and smart for having followed the clues that the author included.

Unfortunately, I spotted the author’s misdirection early on and spent close to half the book mentally yelling at the characters - (view spoiler)[AW = ABIGAIL Worthington! (hide spoiler)] which kinda detracted from my overall enjoyment of the book.

Otherwise, it had a lot going for it. I enjoyed the setting and the characterisation just fine.

Was anyone else frustrated by the characters’ slowness on this point? It seems like Fatma, in particular, shouldn’t have been so blind to the possibility.

I was also a little frustrated that it took Fatma so long to figure out who the villain was. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, the mystery felt stretched out.

This is, for me, the problem with most straightforward mysteries, SFF or not. If the plot isn't built carefully with reveals and misdirections done in a plausible fashion, they seem too long.

In this, as with many of these kinds of books, it just seems the investigator bounces from scene to scene, never getting ahead much until the final, dramatic unveiling. Then you have scenes like (view spoiler)[ the gathering where Fatma takes a lot of police into a poor area where 'Al Jahiz" makes an appearance and, of course, gets away (hide spoiler)]. Since that scene had to end the way it did, the entire thing felt contrived.

I still liked this for the setting and the writing itself, but I think too many authors misunderstand what makes mysteries really satisfying or at least what I think does... a truly intricate puzzle that takes an intelligent detective to unravel, piece by piece.

I agree with Colin about the clue he pointed out. I was actually hoping for an extra twist, but nope. I loved this world, but I felt like there was too much magic for a mystery setting.
I really enjoyed the magical elements, but it started to feel like magic was invented to make the mystery harder, (view spoiler)[ ie. Magic that makes everyone forget about the seal, magic that makes a suspect incapable of talking, and the handful of illusions made to make us think it wasn't her. (hide spoiler)]
This is a key problem with some SFF mysteries: any gap or perceived inconsistencies in the evidence can be explained by magic or technology the author invents. I actually read an introduction to possibly the first SFF mystery The Caves of Steel, wherein Asimov says his editor told him not to write a mystery in an SFF setting for exactly that reason, but of course Asimov asserted that if the parameters of the world and the technology are clear, then a mystery in an SFF setting is definitely possible. Hence, the Three Laws of Robotics, which made the parameters of the technology perfectly clear. But when the forensics character (view spoiler)[realized that the evidence was disguised by illusion magic, and the infinite possibilities of angel magic came into the story, (hide spoiler)] I felt that there was just too much magic going around to trust anything, and decided to just not worry about the whodunnit. (view spoiler)[Even so though, I would have liked better explanations than "it was all clever magic I did," at the reveal. (hide spoiler)]

Paul wrote: "This is a key problem with some SFF mysteries: any gap or perceived inconsistencies in the evidence can be explained by magic or technology the author invents. .."

This is so true! In this case I liked how some of it had to be managed with magic workarounds, which felt very much like how a detective would solve a case rather than how SFF would approach a problem.