Goblins & Greatcoats

Legends & Lattes #0.6

by Travis Baldree

A goblin with too many pockets and a disturbing affinity for cutlery, a rain-soaked night, four adventurers, a pair of corpses, a junk-drawer knife, some unfortunate taxidermy, and a beleaguered Gatewarden…

These are the primary ingredients in a locked-room mystery that can only be solved by the Territory's most unlikely detective.

Her name is Zyll.

Her eyes are keen, her teeth are sharp, and the chaos of her passing leaves no murder unsolved.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Mystery, Fiction, Cozy, Cozy Fantasy, High Fantasy

25 pages, ebook

First published June 24, 2024

About the author

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Legends & Lattes, Bookshops & Bonedust, and Brigands & Breadknives. Audie-winning. Audiobook narrator. Erstwhile game developer. Made Fate, Torchlight & Rebel Galaxy.

Reviews

[Melanie (meltotheany) · Rating 4 out of 5]

♡ download and read for free from subterranean press

fourteen pages of cozy fantasy murder mystery meets a d&d campaign perfection. we follow zyll (with her greatcoat of many pockets), and her pony (named round boy 🥺), come to an inn one rainy night and slowly solve the closed circle mystery. i really adored this and i really hope travis blesses us with more from within story in the future (please more zyll and round boy adventures).

trigger and content warnings: talk of murder / death + blood

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♡ Legends & Lattes ★★★★★
♡ Bookshops & Bonedust ★★★★★

[* A Reader Obsessed * · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

A mystery and a mysterious goblin that caught my attention in a short 14 pages. My only hope is that Baldree gives us more of this character in the future!

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

free here

which is fair enough, as i have (happily) spent way too much money on limited edition seanan mcguire books thru them.

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun short story that's a fantasy version of a cozy mystery with a goblin investigating. Free from Subterranean Press.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

a very short treat from the legends & lattes universe! this locked room mystery sets us down with an entirely new cast of characters in the wake of a dastardly murder at an inn.

this is my first time reading one of baldree's works in ebook form rather than audiobook, and it gave me a nice perspective on his writing. i typically adore the audio production, but this format allowed me to soak in more details of the language. there are some truly scrumptious turns of phrase here and there.

it's far too short to make a significant impression, but i still had fun with this. i love that zyll's pony is named round boy! so precious.

[h o l l i s · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no clue how this fourteen page novella (short story?) was going to go or how I could be made to like something so short and that had no ties to anything else but.. somehow.. here we are! This was really cute and a little silly, in the best way!, and I hope it's going to be a series with more to come. Because this little vignette has so much potential.

If you are looking for a distraction from the world that makes no demands on your time, that's both fantasy and locked room mystery, you definitely need this. So if you haven't already, go ahead and make sure to snag yourself a copy of this -- and, ps, as of the time of writing this post, it's free!

3.5 stars

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This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities.

[Maëlys · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 / 5

this was a very fun introduction to a character i hope we see more of in the future!

read for the Fantasy Book Bingo Challenge: Orcs, Trolls, and Goblins - Oh My! (Hard Mode)

[Danny_reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a super quick little mystery!

Personally, I thought the writing was a bit too descriptive and wordy in the beginning, but this was a a fun little story with an interesting main character. I want to know more about Zyll and would read a longer book following her.

[Mangrii · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una fantasía acogedora con misterio de habitación cerrada al estilo de los casos de Judge Dee de Lavie Tidhar con mucha cercanía a DnD. Ojalá tengamos más Zyll en el futuro :)

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun, quick read.

[Silvana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute but too short.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A free short story from Subterranean Press by Travis Baldree. Part of his Legends and Lattes universe, but with new characters. Ending is a bit abrupt.

[Matteo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Racconto divertente ambientato (ma del tutto scollegato) nello stesso universo di Legends & Lattes. Prosa frizzante e irriverente che condisce un murder mystery risolto in poche pagine.

Il difetto principale risiede non tanto nell'aver schierato, in così poco spazio, molti personaggi, ma quanto nell'averli voluti identificare in maniera molto precisa con descrizioni accurate e, soprattutto, con nomi che difficilmente rimangono in testa. Sarebbe stato molto meglio limitarsi alla presentazione fisica, che già li distingueva bene (l'elfa, la nana, il folletto).

Vengono introdotti concetti che potrebbero (e visto il successo della serie, scommetto che sarà così) trovare futuri sviluppi nel mondo che l'autore sta costruendo.

[Sam Donovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

ok now i'm off to binge Death to Divinity, Dungeons Dice a& Everything Nice, and everything Dimension 20 <3

[Raquel Flockhart · Rating 2 out of 5]

This fantasy short story is a cozy mystery in which a goblin arrives one night at an inn where a crime has taken place and tries to figure out which of the six suspects present there is the murderer. A cozy fantasy adventure with Baldree’s distinctive writing style, with a plot too rushed for its short length and that doesn’t leave much room to minimally develop the characters so that at least their voices can be distinguished, but which ending left me with a smile.

[Punk]

Currently (as of June 25, 2024) free at Subterranean Press as a DRM-free epub. You'll need to have an account, which includes providing a mailing address.

[Elentarri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 stars

This is a charming little locked-room murder mystery solved with the aid of a "goblin with too many pockets and a disturbing affinity for cutlery". If you want to test drive Travis Baldree's writing style, this short story is available for free from Subterranean Press: https://subterraneanpress.com/goblins...

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

FYI - I have this shelved as a kindle freebie, but it is actually free from Subterranean Press.

I actually enjoyed this better than the novels, to be honest. Short, too the point, with good characterization.

[prag ♻ · Rating 4 out of 5]

should i get into dnd

[Tim&#x1f319; · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Tyrell ⚔️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

In marches Travis Baldree and a cozy new short story.

if you're in the mood for a quick, cute story with all the cozy, mysterious vibes, read this short by Travis Baldree. It is free on Subterranean Press's website.

[Jemma Crosland · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s always a good day when you’ve discovered something new from Travis Baldree. This was a delightful novella featuring Zyll our detective, set in the world of Legends & Lattes. A classic whodunnit murder mystery, with quirky characters and great humour. This really made me smile, I would love to see Zyll get her chance at a full novel, and Travis Baldree’s writing in this is no less spectacular than in his previous works.
5 stars

[Pippin Took, the Shire Hobbit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a short, fun read. It is available for free here

I was sure I had it figured out and then bam 💥 there was a nice twist in the end. I really hope Travis writes more stories following Zyll in the future. Also what a nice cover!

[Iona Sharma]

I'm not going to dunk on an author for doing the thing that's the thing they do. I liked Legends and Lattes, understood it was a riff on DnD (which I don't play) and that it was low-stakes because it was meant to be and no one was getting anything they didn't sign up for.

This, however, annoyed the shit out of me. For one thing, Subterranean seem to be trying to imply it's a novella rather than a 14-page novelette. And for the main thing, this is DnD. It's just DnD. The tavern, check; the huge number of characters of different species and funny names, check; the worldbuilding that's incomprehensible unless you already know what it is. This doesn't feel like a piece of work that's intended to be a work of freestanding narrative fiction. It's very annoying.

[José · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

Un cuento bastante entretenido que transcurre en el universo de Legends & Lattes.

En pocas páginas Baldree establece un misterio bastante sencillo, pero cargado del humor que caracteriza a sus libros. Es un gran autor para leer si andas buscando historias divertidas y personajes entrañables. Si además juegas D&D, seguro sus libros te van a encantar.

[Sibil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is so cute! And it was fun, too!
I couldn't believe that such a short story could have been so good, especially if you have to solve a murder in it, but... I was wrong. This story is short, really really short, but it is also good, really really good!
Zyl is an amazing character and the Blade too! and I really hope to read more of her adventures, maybe even longer ones! This is a perfect blend of mystery and fantasy, with a good serving of cozy all around!

[By Book and Bone (Sally) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite a funny entry into the Legends & Lattes universe (though it seems entirely unrelated). Goblins & Greatcoats is well worth the read if you're a fan of Baldree's other work, or even if you would just like a taste before committing to a longer novel.

For 25 pages, a lot gets done and the story doesn't feel rushed. Zyll, our titular goblin, is a fun character and I hope to see more of her, even in the background of other stories.

[Gemma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this short story set in the world of Legend & Lattes! I have just finished Brigands & Breadknives where I was first introduced to Zyll's character but I love that this short story gives the reader more of an insight into her character and her personality.

It seems impossible that a murder mystery can be solved in just 20 pages but Baldree does it perfectly and also adds some humour in too to make this an enjoyable short story. I hope we get to see more of Zyll again.

[milliereadsalot · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick, fun little novella mystery set in the world of Legends & Lattes. I think it was definitely too short - less than 50 pages is not really enough to gain anything from; 100 pages or so would have been much better for me personally.

[JasonReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haha, loved it. More Zyll, please!