The King’s Justice by E.M. Powell is a nice start to her Stanton and Barling medieval mystery novel series. I’m having a fun time finishing the Shardlake series, with just two more to go in the collection. The King’s Justice is on a similar type of footing but much shorter and a little bit more engaging and to the point. While there is still character development, it is obviously not as detailed when compared to Master Shardlake. However, I still found both of the protagonists in the story, Stanton and Barling, to be engaging enough.

The story starts out interesting enough. It’s a bit cliche, but it sums up the turbulent and cruel way of life, especially when dealing with crimes in those days. Stanton and Barling are a great duo of characters, as they balance out one another. Whereas Barling is extremely strict in his way of doing things, young Stanton is a bit more flexible and keen of eye. Their murder mystery in the small village of Claresham starts out, like most mysteries, as a simple task to mete out justice, but of course what they find there is much more complicated.

Although the story is a bit formulaic and includes many of the usual stereotypical characters of that era, I still found it to be a calming read from start to finish. The actual murder mystery itself was just average overall. It’s also obvious that both Stanton and Barling have had troubled pasts that the author only hints at from time to time. With Stanton, the author remarked that his backstory could be read in book two in her other series, The Five Knights. With Barling, it seems he’s autistic, given how everything must be done in a certain way and order. He’s interesting enough to make me want to learn his story and how he came to be in the King’s service, of which he is extremely proud.

I think I’ll bookmark this series in case I want more medieval-style mysteries once I’m done with the Shardlake set. *The King’s Justice* is not exactly overwhelming, but it’s a good start, in my opinion, and at least warrants a read of the second book in the series.