Judge Dee and the Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels

This isn't Judge Dee, the 7th century Tang dynasty Chinese magistrate and statesman. This is another Judge Dee, a fictional vampire judge, wandering medieval Europe, enforcing the law as vampires see it--which is mostly making sure vampires don't do things that attract too much human attention. Anything that would cause humans to become aware and alarmed enough to endanger vampire-kind. It's not about protecting humans; it's about protecting vampires from humans.

Judge Dee is accompanied by a young man named Jonathan, a human whom he rescued from underneath a pile of dead bodies for entirely practical, even selfish, reasons. He needed directions. Then he decided that Jonathan was useful, and kept him. Mostly he takes good care of show more Jonathan, but sometimes he forgets that his human servant needs food, and gets cold.

In this case, Judge Dee has been summoned to a mountainous region in the Holy Roman Empire. Count Werdenfels, a vampire, has been murdered. The killer must be found.

They arrive at the count's castle, and discover that they don't have a killer seeking to hide their guilt. They have three people claiming to be the killer, Each of the claimed killers is happy to explain how they did it, show them the place where the killing happened.

None of them can produce a corpse.

Yes, there's a reason they're competing to be recognized as the killer.

It's an interesting puzzle.

I bought this book. show less

One thing about Judge Dee - he knows whodunnit. And you know what, it is NEVER the obvious one. Vampires are a sneaky bunch and it makes sense that to judge a Vampire you have to be Chief Whip of sneaking and trickery.

Jonathan is not long for this world. He seems to be deteriorating emotionally and he has less interest in what his master is called to do. Understandable, he is human, always on the road, communicating with one being that is not human and at times going without food for days. Jonathan's key role is basically to be a sounding board for Judge Dee (not that he is really necessary to the case-solving process which he seems to be realizing) yet he was literally just an echo chamber in this book : yes master, yes master, yes show more master. And dont get me started on his slobbery- on this, I could totally understand if Judge Dee wanted to throw him off a cliff.

The case was bound to be interesting, 3 potential killers all confess but who is the real killer. show less

Entertaining. I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't so distracted by the 'Judge Dee' name (he's a famous judge person/character). As such, I kept looking for similarities of style or trying to understand if the author was making a historical connection. I still don't know the answer; there was very little history of Dee in this story, and only an allusion to him plucking Jonathan out of a mess in England. At any rate, this one is about Judge Dee stumbling into a missing vampire and three who claim to have killed him. It's a light story, mildly amusing, no great commentary. Something about it just misses for me, perhaps the lack of detail and the contrived dialogue of the characters.

I found the first story more entertaining: show more target="_top">https://www.tor.com/2020/11/11/judge-dee-and-the-limits-of-the-law-lavie-tidhar/

https://www.tor.com/2021/02/10/judge-dee-and-the-three-deaths-of-count-werdenfel... show less

I really do not care for Jonathan. At all.
I liked the ending, it saved the whole thing.
Can't say I cared much about the story as a whole.

Another absorbing historical vampire tale. I will share these stories with friends. Such a delight to read. Story is free here, coourtesy of Tor:
https://www.tor.com/2021/02/10/judge-dee-and-the-three-deaths-of-count-werdenfel....