I liked Heroes Die quite a bit, but as you say, Blade of Tyshalle is on an entirely higher level. I first read it about ten years ago, and read it again in 2012 to find that it was still just as excellent as I'd remembered. Stover excels at writing intriguing, smart stories that are full of hard-nosed, thrilling action and character drama. I'd recommend him to anyone who doesn't mind some swearing and violence.

I'm very interested to see what you think of the next two. As I mentioned before, Stover never seems to write the same book twice. Blade of Tyshalle is a different kind of book from Heroes Die, and even though you could say that Blade is one of the best sorts of fantasy books a person could write, he never tries to repeat it. Caine Black Knife and Caine's Law are both completely different again, and completely different from each other. Caine Black Knife is a book that I appreciated a lot more on a second read than I did on the first; and Caine's Law is just one of the most narratively out-there things I've ever read in the fantasy genre, to the point where I think I'll have to read it again someday before I can get a handle on what I think about it.