Sometimes you have to look out the window and sigh. Other times you look out the window and wonder why everything is orange. (Those of you who have been dealing with air quality issues because of the Canadian wildfires will get that.) And, in the worst of times you have to scratch your head and wonder, “Why are all of these kids dead?” Yeah, those times suck. I mean, unless they’re fictional kids and you’re reading Sam Robb’s A Sense of Murder: Road Mage Volume 1. Then it’s okay because the kids aren’t real.
Think about. Are the kids in the room with us now?
Right.
Anyway…
A Sense of Murder is for sure a murder mystery in a fantasy setting but it’s more than just that. The main character, Ser Kellan tor Iaestus is a Highwayman. That roughly translates to like a lawman or a detective. His buddy/boss/partner is an imperial mage named Prospero and they’re looking for someone who uses magic to kill people. That’s the basic premise. It gets deeper than that, obviously, but if you go into the book with that expectation you won’t be disappointed. Robb wrote a very good mystery.
The thing is, A Sense of Murder is also an opening into a world much larger than what we get to see on the page. I don’t want to go too far into spoiler territory here, but there is very obviously a lot still to come. The world of ASoM is potentially never ending. I like that about it. It’s like Star Wars: Pure Fantasy Edition except bigger and without Order 66. For the most part. I guess it’s a bit early to call for an actual Extended Universe after one book, so for now I’ll just say that I wouldn’t protest against such a thing. But there’s a whole lot of room for expansion and I can’t wait to see where this series goes next.
And the world of A Sense of Murder feels lived in. The characters there are people doing people things. Kellan isn’t just some random dude. People know him because he rides his circuit enforcing the law. They know each other. When Kellan enters a town it feels like it’s been there for awhile. This is something a lot of other writers struggle with, but Robb seems to have this thing cold. I don’t know how much, if any, of the backstories of these towns he’s written anywhere, but you can feel them there. The tavern doesn’t feel like it was created for the story. It feels like it’s been there for year and was just a convenient spot for a drink.
And here’s the other thing: This is a work of Christian allegory. The main villain of A Sense of Murder is actually a demon, but his boss is known as The Accuser. Any Christian should instantly recognize that as a reference to Satan. I caught that right off. Don’t get me wrong. There’s not a lot of preachiness here. But there is a definite faith flavor and it’s not just because Prospero reminds Kellan to remember his vespers.
A Sense of Murder has almost a found family type of feeling. The people who come together at the beginning of the book don’t even know each other. Kellen and Prospero don’t seem to trust each other. There are other outside forces that stress things as well. By the end of the book though, you can’t picture them not working together. It’s like they’ve always worked together. It almost feels like they always will, except for the fact that Prospero says he’s going to retire. We’ll see how that goes for him come next novel. I’m kind of hoping he shows up butthurt because his request to retirement got rejected, but who knows?
I mean, it’s not that I’m INTENTIONALLY being a buttface on this topic. I just like the guy enough to wanna torture him.
Or sumfin’
Listen, he’s a cool part of the story. I like mages. Stop looking at me like that.
There’s a lot of action in A Sense of Murder too. Some of it is just straight up fighting. Robb’s good at that. Some of the action is a little more supernatural in nature. At least one fight is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Robb makes it all entertaining and uses it to pull the reader deeper into the story. There’s just something sympathetic about a character that has just survived a good scrap and Robb milks that for all it’s worth.
The magic system in A Sense of Murder is vague enough to be easily useful to Robb and well defined enough to make sense to all of us schlubs. That’s not the easiest thing in the world to do. Robb pulled it off though. I was pretty impressed. But still, it felt consistent in universe. There was also a bit of a feel of the old school Christian magic of bell, book and candle and that went well with the other Christian elements of the book. There are multiple references to a type of caster known as a hag. I want to meet one of those. They sound cool. Kind of a like a healer mage or something. We’ll see what/if Robb does anything with them in the future, but it’ll be a lost opportunity if he doesn’t.
A Sense of Murder is the first in a series and I can’t wait to see what’s coming next. This is the type of universe that just begs for additional stories. That’s not to say that the first one isn’t a complete story. It is. It’s just that I can see this thing turning into a fantasy version of Star Trek where the characters get to visit strange new worlds every installment. Stories about an interdimensional travelling lawman that can use magic can take a writer a long way. There’s basically no limit to what he can do or where he can go. I’m excited to be along for the ride.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Blue Ribbons
A Sense of Murder: Road Mage Volume 1
Sam Robb
Selene Press, 2026
A Sense of Murder: Road Mage Volume 1 is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.
A Sense of Murder: Road Mage Volume 1
Thank you, sir! Glad you enjoyed it. :)