I bought and started reading Widow's Welcome by D.K. Fields about 18 months ago which neatly fits it into the category of 'a paper book I bought at an event in the last couple of years' and therefore firmly into my 2022 book goals.
I honestly couldn't remember much so I started again... and I'm so glad I did.
There's power in stories. This is a story of power.
Dead bodies aren't unusual in the alleyways of Fenest, capital of the Union of the Realms. Especially not in an election year, when the streets swell with crowds from near and far. Muggings, brawls gone bad, debts collected—Detective Cora Gorderheim has seen it all. Until she finds a Wayward man with his mouth sewn shut.
As she digs into the dead man's past, she finds herself drawn into the most dangerous event in the Union: the election. In a world where stories win votes, someone has gone to a lot of trouble to silence this man. Who has stopped his story being told?
And so reads the blurb on the back - a book I must have chosen for the cover and the quote from Christopher Fowler "It's rare to find such a richly imagined world about the art of storytelling". The marketing department did a good job.
Stories within stories, Widow's welcome changes pace effortlessly from grubby police procedural, complete with disillusioned antihero to folktale type stories full of mystery and pain. Each of the election stories were told in full and realign your perception of the main story. Very clever, beautifully written and I can't wait for the next one (but works as a stand-alone for me).