Battle of the Round House
Tananarive Due
A Wild West battle
Tananarive Due‘s Battle of the Round House is the sixth story in the Amazon Original Magic and Mystery series. It felt distinctly different from the first five, though. (Foreshadowing: book 7 is even more different.)
I realized as I read Battle of the Round House that each of the first five books felt like an extended joke (The Lion’s Tusk less so than the others). Although they are all mysteries, the solution of the mystery felt more like the punch-line of a joke than the solution of a mystery. Of course all mysteries have that feel to some extent -- there’s a puzzle you’re supposed to guess. But in none of the first five does this mystery feel like something that could really happen, even in its own fantasy world. They feel like jokes that could be told in their worlds.
Battle of the Round House takes itself seriously. It is based on a true story from Due‘s family history. She says in her Acknowledgements
My family history led directly to my creation of Zipporah Ranch. I only added the Wild West, cattle . . . and a little magic.
It’s about black families surviving -- nay, prospering and defending themselves -- in the Wild West.
It’s a good story. I like a laugh, but by book six, I was ready for one of these authors to tell a story that I could on some level believe in.
This is, in my opinion, the second-best story in the series. It misses being best only because the last story, The Cairndale Orphan is extraordinary. (As always, YMMV.)