John Maddox Roberts: Murder in Tarsis (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
Who killed Ambassador Bloodarrow?
When the Lord of Tarsis finds himself with a politically volatile murder on his hands, he turns to the three most expendable inhabitants of the city for a solution. A mercenary, a poet-assassin, and a thief might not be everyone's first choice for detectives. But they find they're quite good at bringing murderers to justice.

Perhaps a little too good...

John Maddox Roberts: Murder in Tarsis. TSR, ISBN: 0786915870 (October, 1999), 250 p., $5.99.

John Maddox Roberts: Murder in Tarsis (1996)

From the Publisher:
In a city where all are suspect, time is running out. There are only five days in which to solve the...

MURDER IN TARSIS

When the Lord of Tarsis finds himself with a politically volatile murder on his hands, he turns to the three most expendable inhabitants of the city for a solution. Ironwood is a mercenary rendered unemployable by a disability resulting from an unfortunate encounter with a dragon. Nistur is an assassin by necessity, a poet by choice. Shellring is the city's most accomplished thief.

The victim is Ambassador Yalmuk Bloodarrow, whose master, Kyaga Strongbow, is outside the city gates with a massive army of barbarians, all yelling for justice. The mission for the three unlikely companions is simple: Find the killer. Their recompense is to be even simpler: Succeed and live, or fail and be hanged by the Lord of Tarsis or tortured to death by the barbarian leader, Kyaga.

But the three neophyte detectives learn something that neither potentate would ever suspect: They re very, very good at bringing murderers to justice whatever the consequence.

John Maddox Roberts: Murder in Tarsis. A Fantasy Mystery. TSR, ISBN: 078690500X (June, 1996), 250 p., $18.99, £10.99.