Murder on the Rockport Limited! by Clint McElroy

Small flyers introduce characters and objects, sometimes repeating the dialog and previous notifications about the character. Verdict: As in the first of the series, Here There Be Gerblins, the focus is on a fast-paced plot fully laced with humor which doesn’t take fantasy very seriously and characters who don’t follow a fame’s unrealistic rules.

The series is based on a podcast in which the four authors play a table top RPG in real time. Black 10-year-old Angus McDonald, self-proclaimed “world’s greatest detective” and addition to the cast, manages to lead the trio of misfits, and author Griffin McElroy sometimes pops into the panels in unsuccessful attempt to advise them. The reclaimers’ first job takes them on a magical and deadly train trip to solve a series of killings. With his sons Justin, Travis, and Griffin, McElroy resumes the adventures of burly human warrior Magnus Burnsides, chubby dwarf cleric Merle Highchurch, and slender elf wizard Taako as they volunteer for the Bureau of Balance organization, “dedicated to finding and neutralizing dangerous magical artifacts.” Their job would be “reclaimers” to collect artifacts found by “seekers” and subjects to “regulators” who hunt down and deal with “anyone who uses information gathered for the own whim, or who wields an artifact, even once…, according the Bureau’s director. Murder on the Rockport Limited! (Adventure Zone series, book 2).

Murder on the Rockport Limited! by Clint McElroy