Cart and Cwidder (The Dalemark Quartet, Book 1)

CW: murder, death of multiple family members. DWJ readthrough, #3. Moril's family are singers who travel around unfriendly regions of Dalemark giving shows on the cwidder— a lute-like instrument. Apparently out of the blue, Moril's father is murdered by some mercenaries; before he dies, he gives Moril his cwidder. Moril's mother then remarries on the same day. Moril has to figure out what's going on before too many more people get killed. This is the first of the four Dalemark books, DWJ's main venture into high fantasy. The books are deftly written and believable, though I miss the usual humour. As usual in DWJ, there's a lot of family tension and a lot about the nature of words and story.