Fighting crime in magical Turai is a very tricky business if you don't know what you're doing. Thankfully, private investigator Thraxas never has this problem (according to Thraxas). Winter is coming to Turai, and Thraxas is in a bad mood. But it's going to get a whole heap worse because the orcs are coming too. Thraxas was a hero of the last Orc War (according to Thraxas). That was some years ago, however, and this time he would much prefer to keep his head down - preferably buried in a big steak pie. Unfortunately, when a senior member of the War Council is murdered by a cake, there's only one private investigator in line for the job. For some reason, it was a very short line.