Death Masks

Forgotten Realms - Publication Order

by Ed Greenwood

Ed Greenwood, who is synonymous with the Forgotten Realms, leads readers through a story that combines the rollicking fantasy adventure for which he is famous with a murder mystery-thriller.

THAT'S WHAT, FOUR LORDS DEAD?

Revealed in death to have been Masked Lords, three more citizens had been murdered over the preceding day and night: the Sembian wine-seller and collector Oszbur Malankar; the half-elf sorceress and artisan Dathanscza Meiril; and the moneylender, landlord, and investor Ammasker Gwelt.

All of Waterdeep now knew someone was killing the Lords of Waterdeep, one by one. Yet that was about where truth ended and speculation--however plausible--began. The broadsheets were full of wild conjecture. Who's behind this? The ousted Lord Neverember? The Zhentarim, the Cult of the Dragon or some other Outland Power? The Xanathar? Some cabal of guilds or nobles planning a coup?

The rumors would rage on, whether the Open Lord Laeral Silverhand did something or not. That was the trouble with rumors; once loosed, they roamed free like snarling, untamed beasts, with no simple way of stopping them. And all rumors aside, Waterdeep has become . . .

A CITY OF MURDERERS!

Genres: Forgotten Realms, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Dungeons and Dragons, Audiobook, Adventure

438 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 7, 2016

About the author

Ed Greenwood is the creator of the Forgotten Realms fantasy world, which became the setting for his home D&D game in 1975. Play still continues in this long-running campaign, and Ed also keeps busy producing Realmslore for various TSR publications.

Ed has published over two hundred articles in Dragon magazine and Polyhedron newszine, is a lifetime charter member of the Role Playing Game Associaton (RPGA) network, has written over thirty books and modules for TSR, and been Gen Con Game Fair guest of honor several times.

In addition to all these activities, Ed works as a library clerk and has edited over a dozen small press magazines.

Invented the character Elminster from the popular Forgotten Realms RPG series. Currently resides in an old farmhouse in the countryside of Ontario, Canada.

Reviews

[Jasmine]

Always interesting to read a book in a shared world. I'd built my own image of Waterdeep from source books and streamed shows, and this was SIMILAR, but different in the way that another person's city that you both live in is different. Not sure I'm going use all of this for my Dragon Heist run, but I definitely am going to use this Open Lord (she's so awesome and terrifying).

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been reading Forgotten Realms books since 1994 and have read them all and thus is why I continue to subject myself to reading Ed Greenwood's FR novels. I don't know what happened from his earlier works that were really good. Stormlight in The Harper's series as well as Spellfire and Crown of Fire also the Shadow of the Avatar trilogy was a fun read.. Elminster, The Making of a Mage and Elminster in Myth Drannar were great. What's happened since I couldn't tell you. Now it is just the same old droll in a certain city.

So now that previous places have been ruined, Ed Greenwood now turns his sights on Waterdeep. The City of Splendors has now become just another big city full of whining nobles, treacherous lords, and dastardly deeds thwarted by Elminster, Mirt, and Laerel. Once again we have a book of a million characters which are uninteresting and have hard to pronounce names and of course the reader is subjected to their full names most of the time. To make matters worse, now the cool places I've read about by other authors are either destroyed or plague ridden so as to make them uninhabitable. Downshadow, made popular by on of my favorite realms authors Erik Scott di Bie, has parts of Waterdeep falling into it from sinkholes and there is rumors of a plague down there. Then there is Mistshore, another area made popular by Jaleigh Johnson, is now burnt to the shoreline. I wonder if Steven Schend may be a bit upset with the way Mr. Greenwood has downplayed Vajra Blackstaff and turned her into a weak brainless character. If I were to pick a character that was interesting to read about, it would be Mirt. He was the only one who was likable and I was able to connect with. Everyone else felt 2 dimensional and uninteresting.

The writing for this one is all over the place. It should not be called AD&D but ADHD. It constantly jumps from one view to the next. I constantly found myself having to re-read passages to get back on track with what was going on. There is so much that I could go on and on, but I think this is enough.

The reason for 2 stars is there were some times when the story was engaging and entertaining and I upped it from 1.5 stars which is where I would have put it and don't think it was horrible enough for a 1 star rating. If it wasn't for the fact that I want to continue to see where the realms are going and continue with realms lore, I would quit reading Mr. Greenwood. The only other 2 authors being published right now are R A Salvatore and Erin M. Evans whom I think is hands down the best author to date. It does look as though Troy Denning will be writing for the realms again as well and that will be a welcome change.

[Parker · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I was reading one chapter, my partner looked over my shoulder and said, "well if that's not the most awkward sex scene ever written", to which I replied-"You clearly haven't read the rest of the book."
If I hadn't needed to read this as part of my prep for running Dragon Heist, I would have stopped. At one point a cloud giant castle turns up and then has nothing to do with the rest of the story. Okay then. Women's clothes just fall off all the time and Elminster can only copy bodies by kissing and/or groping them. How old are you, six? Mirt the Moneylender responds to some bad news by... straight-up murdering a man? And nobody says anything about it? What?
A lot of the prose is completely incomprehensible on account of the author's tendency to use an em-dash to completely go on a tangent mid sentence and expect you to remember where you were when he returns you to the original sentence four lines later. Mirt is about as unlikeable as characters get, and reading any scene where he eats food made me feel sick.
Which "heroes" live and which die in this story says an awful lot about the personal ideals of the author, or whoever it was told him to kill off two prostitutes and a homosexual. Meanwhile, two other characters deus ex machina their way out of certain death. The story was convoluted and overwrought and the "foreshadowing" re the polished floor was about as subtle as a full pack of Imodium.
Glad I read this before DMing Dragon Heist because I have some things to get right.

[Jennifer Koudelka · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm stealing this review from someone else, but the line "The night was darker than a blind woman's womb" really tells you all you need to know about the writing quality of this book.

How we fit a "women be shopping" joke in a fantasy realm to the leader of the city and one of the most powerful magic users, is beyond me.

Unfortunately it also didn't help me that much with DM prepping either. Unfortunate.

[Anthony · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awkward, uncomfortable and for a book about a billion murders, kind of a boring slog.
I read it to get info on the setting for a DND campaign and good gods did I have trouble getting through.
Approaches sex and sexuality in a way that gives huge uncomfy, horny nerd energy. Everyone is so horny and it's exhausting at best or uncomfortable at worst.

Super don't recommend (even for people DMing a game set in Waterdeep. I learned very little about the setting thanks to this book).

[Daniel Lavan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being a whodunnit and political intrigue about a few dozen murders should be more interesting, but he could've taken out 150 pages and the story would be the same. I ended up skimming at the 2/3 mark because I just needed to get through this.

[Kendra Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d give this book 3 ½ stars if I could. The story itself was decent, but it was kind of all over the place, and some of the character development on the newer characters I felt was lacking. Every character also seems to have the same type of dry humor. *Some spoilors ahead*

But it wasn’t horrible, and there were some good lore bits about what was going on in the Realms, such as Storm, Rune, and Arclath helping to establish favorable relations between elves and Cormyr. Also, there are temples of Eilistraee popping up in Waterdeep, and as a fan of the Dark Maiden, and glad for her return, this made me smile.

I was happy to see a same-sex couple in this book (Jalester and Dunblade), even though their amorous relationship seemed to have developed rather abruptly, unless they had been lovers beforehand. And it ended tragically. The last one, in “Elminster Enraged”, ended sadly too (Longclaws and…I am forgetting his name. It was never expressly stated that they were in love, but it was implied). And Elminster taking over Dunblade’s body right after his death, and then hugging Jalester…okay, I understand El needed a body, but he wraps his arms around Jal and says “I’ll be your friend”. I realize he is trying to comfort Jalester, but…come on. His lover just died. I love El, but that was a bit low.

Like Laeral, this book made me miss Khelben. I liked the tidbit about how she could commune with Dove, Sylune, and even Florin in the Weave, but Khelben went to Arvandor (even though he wasn’t an elf. So at least he’s in a good place). I felt kind of sorry for Vajra, but I prefer Khelben as the Blackstaff. However, the torch—or staff, in this case—has to be passed at some point.

The sky giants arriving was a big part of the first part of the book, but it isn’t mentioned or dwelt with through the rest of the book, so I am wondering what is going to happen with that. Perhaps it has to do with the next big Realms event being rumored to involve giants, so it was mostly used as a setup for that.

There was definite intrigue, with treachery upon treachery taking place, and it was fun to read a book set in Waterdeep again. There is always something going on—or below that city. The end left an opening or a sequel, if that happens. It was nice to read a new FR novel, few as they are these days, so I finished it quickly. I could have savored it, but I wanted updates, and I was hungry, so to speak.

This is marketed as an Elminster novel, and El is in it, but the main character is arguably Laeral. El is more of a background character through most of the book. It is a stand-alone, but people who read it should have some Realms knowledge, and what has recently happened in the Realms. I wonder why it is harder for priests to resurrect, though they can still heal. The gods are quieter in fifth edition, but they seem “distant” to even their clerics and priests—even Mystra to her Chosen. As a fan of the gods, this has me a bit concerned. However, Mystra still makes herself known, and does continue to speak to her Chosen, so maybe I’m just paranoid.

Recommended to Realms fans.

[Meredith Katz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might have to break this one down into sections, tbh.

As a book on its own:
It wasn't great, honestly. The pacing was far off from where it should be: chaotic at best and incoherent at times at worst. For example, early on Jalester sneaks away from a hiding spot where a couple is making out at a party and he sees that the woman has a symbol of Asmodeus on. We cut to a woman abruptly murdering a man she is making out with at the party, and carving the symbol of Asmodeus into his body. And then we cut back to... Jalester stumbling on the body, because yes, this was a different pair of makeouts and a different asmodeus worshipper carving the symbol. I assumed this was a logical A->B but no, it was A->T->C. And in general, the book as a whole is written like this, with far too many plot points, characters, and motivations thrown into the mix. I think it would have been much stronger to have cut a lot of the pov of different villains taking actions and turn it more into a murder mystery instead -- we could still have the Tasheene villain perspective if she also didn't know who her employer was.

That said, it's also very entertaining. It's a fun read in a traditional pulpy style! The character dialogue is a lot of fun and there were some genuinely good character relationships. After about 18% I genuinely didn't want to put it down, because however incoherent it was, I still wanted to see what happened next.

As a D&D book:
D&D novels often have the unenviable job of smoothing together canon elements so that they feel like they take place in the same setting as the adventure scenarios that get released. So we have a family of cloud giants that don't even function as a red herring but as just another chaotic 'this thing happened, I guess' .... because Storm King Thunder was coming out soon. We have drow randomly appearing in Downshadow as enemies because Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage was on the horizon. We have a certain archmage getting healed up after Curse of Strahd. We have Asmodeus worshippers among the nobility, and the Zhents and Xanathar all making power grabs with and against each other, because of the upcoming four possible villains of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. Etc etc. If it were allowed to just act on its own without having to fold in All These References it might have to be stronger. In addition, some elements -- like disallowing raise dead spells -- made no sense in light of 5e's ruleset. It added more danger and risk to the book as a book, but I mean, I'm looking at the 5e spell list right now and they're right there. Not to mention, this isn't like just a general D&D thing vs the Forgotten Realms campaign setting because the scenario Waterdeep: Dragon Heist literally confirms it's possible to bring back a character whose brain is gone, which we are told is impossible here. WDH was written afterward, of course, but since this book was meant to set it up, it really needed to stick closer to the spell rules.

The best written characters in this book are all either ones who Ed Greenwood primarily wrote or came up with (Laeral, Mirt, and Elminster), or are new to this book and thus made by him primarily (Jalester, the escort rogue trio). However, characters who were created and written primarily as another author feel like someone else entirely. Vajra Safahr was created for Blackstaff Tower by Steven Schend, and not only did the Vajra in this book not feel like a Vajra with 12 more years of experience under her belt, she didn't even feel as mature or together as Vajra IN that book (who was, uh, dealing with a mental invasion of like 10 archmages, but was a perfectly competent character around that). I loved reading almost all the characters, but Vajra's role here was unfortunate, especially as I believe she's one of only two Black characters in this story (and the only good-aligned one).

Representation, the good:
- Multiple queer characters and a casually bisexual world. Elminster may have been confirmed bisexual here?? It seemed confirmed to me since he agreed that he HAS seduced both lasses and lads before. In addition, Jalester and Faerrel's queerness was at no point a plot point, there was no prejudice or coming out to overcome -- they were lovers who came to the city together and worked together as a unit, the same way a m/f pairing might be written in that same scenario.
- Sex workers who are given full character development and ranges of emotion, allowed to exist as people with feelings and a life outside their job, and with a reminder that sex work is work.
- Plenty of female characters in positions of power, good and evil.
- A fat character who was smart, strong, a good person, a known lover, and a capable fighter. (Some points dinged here for Grotesque Eating Descriptions).
- Acknowledgement on page that if a ruling council is pretty much all rich white men (and human ones, given the world of D&D has nonhuman peoples as well) then the actual interests driving the city are extremely shortsighted.

Representation, the bad:
Let's talk character death. D&D has a lot of character death in the novels -- there are only so many characters who are not required to carry on for the overall 'D&D line consistency' reasons, given that it's primarily a franchise set in a world where the characters get leveraged by multiple authors. But since the authors still want things to feel dangerous, the named, reoccurring, minor characters who you have enough development time with are always the ones at risk. As such, having about half those ones die is usually expected in a D&D novels, because they're going into dangerous situations, and so the deaths here aren't necessarily as problematic as they might be otherwise -- I'm not sure I'd call it Bury Our Gays given that in the last D&D Waterdeep book I read two straight men who fill similar roles also got permakilled in similar ways. It's not especially just something that happens just to queer people and sex workers in D&D novels. But in THIS book, those ARE pretty much all of the available characters in the story who are permitted to die, and thus also those who get killed, with one heelturn villain also added in.
- I knew going into this that Jalester's male lover died; it's mentioned in the Waterdeep: Dragon Heist module. I didn't expect it to be randomly and pointlessly at 98%!!! He did fall in battle against the Real Evil, and it made sense given his recklessness we've seen so far, but it could have as easily NOT been written that way. Having his mind destroyed and then ELMINSTER PILOT HIS BODY really stung, as a queer reader.
- Two of the three sex workers died. They didn't die in the course of sex work, and as much as it was a genuinely sad scene and well-written, I was fine with the on page death of one of them -- she died an adventurer, fighting for the city against enemies. But the other was basically killed in friendly fire casually during the final battle in a way that felt like it fed more into the Dead Sex Worker Trope. This also happened in the last like, 5% of the novel.

Overall: A fun read, and there was plenty to like about it, and I enjoyed it overall. It was nevertheless chaotic and hard to follow, and the last few pages were kind of a letdown overall.

[Silas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fairly enjoyable adventure featuring Elminster in more of an ensemble book than in the past. It does still feature the same ribald adventure as other Elminster books, and is just as saucy, this time featuring some same-sex couples, which was a welcome change. There were some references to other Forgotten Realms properties, which was fun, and brings in some of the other Chosen of Mystra as main characters, as well as continuing the focus on Mirt the Moneylender, and bringing in a mysteriously-surviving Volo. It's particularly well-suited to the audiobook format at high speed, given the writing style, which I think helps to smooth over some of the issues other reviewers have complained about (bad one-liners, in particular). Ultimately, it was another enjoyable (if perhaps a tad forgettable) Elminster adventure.

[Matt S · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a DM running a DnD game in Waterdeep or are planning on running Dragon Heist, then you need to read this book. It has a lot of background and information in regard to lore and npc motivations in the city. A clear view of the relationship between the masked lords, the guild masters, and the watch, etc... Also the relationship at least at this time between the Zhentarim and the Xanathar. Read this! DO IT!

[Jeffrey P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sensationalist and confusing but canon?

Barely decent writing but you'll enjoy it if you want to find out the latest adventures of Mystra's chosen in Waterdeep!

[Artemas · Rating 1 out of 5]

"It was darker than the inside of a blind woman's womb." Death Masks pg.45.

This sums up the level of writing you can expect from this one.

[Daniel Milnes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like many other reviewers I picked this up because I'm running the D&D adventure Waterdeep Dragon Heist and wanted some background on the setting. I haven't read any D&D books before, and this was not a good introduction. I only made it a third of the way through before dropping it.

This book is, put simply, completely uninteresting. It's boring, every character reads the same, and there's an uncomfortable level of perversion the entire way through. The book bounces between perspectives from a dozen different characters who all have near-identical narration and personalities, none of whom I found remotely compelling. All the characters are written to be sarcastic and witty and sometimes stupid and always a bit horny, and I didn't care about any of them.

We see the bad guys committing a bunch of political killings, and the good guys trying to solve it, but the book didn't get me emotionally invested in either of these. You know who's doing the killing from the outset, so it feels like the thrill should be watching the good guys solve the case, but by a third of the way through they've made absolutely zero progress apart from ruling out about 2 people. It would be infuriating if the book had made me care at all.

The prose is also just really messy. Sentences flow on for far too long, filled with descriptions and alternate titles and similes until you're unable to understand what's actually happening in the scene. Especially with how many names there are, I was glad I had a digital copy so I could ctrl-f through and find out who the hell is that again?

In the portion I read before I dropped it, so much stuff happened, but half of it wasn't even relevant. There's a plot point where an entire flying castle full of giants appears over the city, but they don't actually do anything for the plot, they're just there to namedrop another campaign that Wizards of the Coast is trying to sell. Returning characters like Storm Silverhand and Mordenkainen appear, but only for one chapter of what I assume is fanservice to show what they're doing after their last adventure.

Possibly the worst element is the uncomfortable level of horniness throughout the whole thing. I get it's trying to be sex-positive, which is fine, but it really reads like a horny teenager's fanfiction. Multiple times it talks about our heroines' ample breasts, there's heaps of descriptions of nudity, and the characters are always itching to jump on each other. As usual for D&D in the last decade, everyone is bisexual now, which is nice representation, but it means that everyone is horny for everyone and it just gets really uncomfortable. Baldur's Gate 3 does sex positivity in a fantasy setting well, Death Masks does not.

Overall - and don't just take my word for it, read reviews of people who actually finished the book - this wasn't worth reading. None of it is interesting, it's difficult and uncomfortable ot read, and I just didn't care enough to finish it. If you want a more detailed background for your Waterdeep campaign, just go read the Forgotten Realms wiki.

[Tapio Kurkinen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first Forgotten Realms book and as an avid 5e player, I'm in love with the setting and the world but the book had some problems that kept me from enjoying it all the way through. I read this while DMing a game of Waterdeep Dragon Heist and I absolutely loved to see how Laeral, Mirt, Jalester, and Vajra acted and what type of relationships they had and I really wished I had read it before running this game to better play as this important NPCs for the story. I also really enjoyed how active a role the city and it's people itself had in the book. The system of lords, guilds, magisters, and status of nobles in the city played a big part in the plot and I think that was executed well.

My biggest problems were with the story itself. It starts off super slowly with us instantly knowing who is doing all the killing and the main characters getting pretty much no progress on trying to prevent anything happening for most of the book. There are idle plot threads that go nowhere and we spend a lot of time with a bunch of characters that don't really further the plot at all. Most of the side characters seem incredibly similar and their dialogue seems to come from the same mouth. I found the writing really confusing at times especially during the action scenes and I really didn't enjoy how the plot ultimately turned out near the end twists. The whole ending "fight" was downright disappointing.

Overall I'm glad I read this book but I didn't enjoy big parts of it. Maybe it works better if you are already familar with the writer or the characters but this just wasn't it for me. I'm still interested in reading some other novels taking place in this setting.

[Devon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was so mind numbingly bad it took me something like a year and a half to actually drag myself through it. As much as I have to say, and have rambled on about to friends as I got through it, I am trying to just let go of detailed take downs of things that have already taken up so much more time than I wanted.

General overview complaints: Rampant misogyny and racism of course, extremely stupid and time wasting details of magic castings or fights that feel like an adolescent describing how they will definitely take someone out, about 30 different moving players to keep track of with barely anything to distinguish them from one another unless you are already very familiar with the world. (And even then, good luck.) The number of cameos in this book for NO REASON BECAUSE THEY DID NOTHING (looking at you, Mordenkainen!!!) are honestly astonishing. Very bad audiobook narration! ONE MILLION HOURS LONG.

A single shining star because I have to rate it and for my girl Laeral Silverhand, you deserve better than this pile of garbage, your horrible goddess mom, and tbh your dead husband!!!

[Silver Mantis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Elminster Tale worthy of the Name…

If you are exploring Elminster for the first time - I recommend holding onto this book and starting at the beginning. Not that reading this tale will “spoil” anything, but the full appreciation of the story is fully realized through context as well as the masterful tale-telling of Mr. Greenwood.

If you are a veteran of Elminster tale-spinning, well you needn’t read this review any further. The writing has only improved, the tales only taller, wider, and sweeter, and the lore of the Forgotten Realms safely nurtured by Mr. Greenwood - as always. Pray Ye discontinue this folly of review and pursue the meat on the bone and lose yourself once again in Elminster’s rollicking adventures!

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted a classic Forgotten Realms style book and with hoping to start playing a Waterdeep Heist campaign, I thought this would be a great way to get myself into the mood. This book however, failed to deliver. It was a ponderous plot full of long, difficult to pronounce and remember name of characters that were there simply to hold a place. The big "gotcha" at the end was fairy predictable, and the few characters that I did care about were only window-dressing for the main story. I finished this book but only because I'm a glutton for punishment.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable book with a lot of strange and unusual magic. The names are bit too strange to be memorable but there is so much death that it doesn't matter in the end. It did introduce many problems and situations that weren't solved during this story. The lost giantess will probably be dealt with in another book. I do like the cloud giants using their floating castles as a way to create accurate maps of Faerun.

[Forrest · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It’s the first in the Forgotten Realms world that I’ve read, which is odd, since it’s one of the most recent that’s been published. The story was very good, my only point of contention is that there was a point in the middle of the book where it was a bit of a slog to get through. I felt like the book was going on and on without coming to the climax. However, this doesn’t mean that the story wasn’t good. I would certainly recommend this book to fantasy lovers.

[Stuart Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an awesome book, took almost a week to read it only because I was enjoying it so much that I savored the final couple hundred pages over the last 3 days. Another work of art from Greenwood. Just have to hope that he has more Elminster/Mystra tales left in him. A real diamond in the rough that was just sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. Maybe there are more in FR out there that I haven’t read. Onwards!

[Antoine Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

For fans of the Realms.

Many interesting informations for would-be Gamemasters, some engaging personalities in the book, the complot story is plausible, the only problem is that the bad guys are really fumbling and mumbling all along, up to a point that it is sometimes almost painful to watch.

Oh well.

[Krzysztof Adam Witalewski · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this one to brush up on the Forgotten Realms lore and atmosphere while looking for some story inspirations for game development character creation

I'm not sure what I was hoping for but this is generic action fantasy at its worst, couldn't read through it all

[Jeremiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I enjoyed it, but I find Mirt, Elminster, and even Laeral to be self-indulgent caricatures too often. Not quite self-inserts of the author, they still feel hamfistedly slammed into the more modern Waterdeep with too much backstory (dare I say baggage) to rest comfortably in the narrative.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review

Large cast of characters in a vibrant setting. Almost needed a boulevard of characters and motivations to keep track of who's scheming what with who.

[Drizztl · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I cannot even with Greenwood's writing right now. Thought this would be "neat" while running Dragon Heist, but I think I'll keep getting my lore from the wiki.

[Vatukoula · Rating 1 out of 5]

not worth the time, unless you just want to complete the collection.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started intriguingly but characters began taking stupid actions for no reason, foreshadowing wasn't paid off, and everyone became horny suddenly. Kept mentioning how the wizard is such a nice guy and also good at romancing; weird vibe when he's notably the author's self insert character.

[Virginia Carolyn Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book, if you are I to murder mysteries it's a great read. It keeps you guessing. Lots of fun and mysterious.

[Jean-Francois Simard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here are five main takeaways from Death Masks by Ed Greenwood, based on its themes, plot, and reception:

1. A Blend of Fantasy and Mystery: Death Masks combines Ed Greenwood's signature rollicking fantasy adventure with a murder mystery-thriller set in the city of Waterdeep. The story revolves around the mysterious deaths of the Masked Lords, creating a suspenseful narrative that keeps readers engaged with political intrigue and magical elements.

2. Rich World-Building in Waterdeep: Greenwood’s detailed depiction of Waterdeep brings the Forgotten Realms to life. The city is portrayed as a vibrant, chaotic hub filled with diverse characters, from nobles to rogues, showcasing his strength as a world-builder and grounding the fantastical plot in a believable setting.

3. Focus on Iconic Characters: The novel features familiar characters like Elminster, Laeral Silverhand, and Mirt the Moneylender, alongside new faces like Jalester Silvermane. These characters, while fallible and mortal, drive the story, offering depth and continuity for fans of the Forgotten Realms while introducing fresh dynamics.

4. Exploration of Power and Corruption: The plot delves into themes of power, betrayal, and speculation as Waterdeep’s leadership faces a crisis. The killings spark rumors of coups and external threats (e.g., the Zhentarim or Xanathar), highlighting the fragility of authority and the undercurrents of ambition in the city.

5. A Setup for Future Adventures: Death Masks serves as a narrative bridge to later Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition stories, such as Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. It plants seeds (or "easter eggs," as Greenwood has hinted) for future developments, balancing a self-contained tale with hints of broader lore to come.

These takeaways reflect the novel’s appeal to Forgotten Realms enthusiasts and its role in expanding the setting, though some readers note its occasionally convoluted plot and pacing as points of critique.