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A Darker Reality (Elena Standish Book 3)
by Anne PerryThe third novel in Anne Perry's breathtakingly tense and exciting spy thriller series, featuring young British photographer and secret agent Elena Standish, set in the 1930s when the world was a place of increasing fear and uncertainty... Spring, 1934. With the threat of war looming, political tensions begin to rise... Elena Standish, a young English photographer who works for British Intelligence, is visiting her grandparents' home in Washington DC when tragedy strikes. A lavish party is held to mark her grandparents' sixtieth wedding anniversary and Elena takes pride in capturing the event on camera, but when the beautiful wife of a renowned scientist is found murdered in the driveway, allegedly run over by Elena's grandfather's car, Elena's world is turned upside down.Arrested on suspicion of murder, Wyatt Baylor protests his innocence, claiming he has enemies who are trying to frame him. But who are these enemies and how can Elena defend a man she barely knows? Turning to secret agent James Allenby for help, Elena must uncover the truth behind the events of that fateful night. But can she trust Allenby or her family and is she willing to risk everything in her pursuit of the truth?(P)2021 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
A Darker Reality: An Elena Standish Novel (Elena Standish #3)
by Anne PerryA personal trip turns perilous for Elena Standish after the murder of a British spy forces her to face dark family secrets in this exciting 1930s mystery by bestselling author Anne Perry.On her first trip to Washington, D.C., Elena Standish finally gets to visit her American mother&’s wealthy parents and their magnificent home. Elena&’s grandparents are marking a milestone anniversary by throwing an elaborate party with the influential friends of her grandfather, a prominent political industrialist. Even President and First Lady Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt are there, and Elena takes pride in capturing the illustrious guests on camera. But the festivities come to a sudden and tragic end when one of the guests, Lila Worth, is run over by a car in the driveway outside. Elena believes Lila was trying to tell her something before her death, and when a call from her employer back home, MI6, confirms that Lila was a British spy, Elena pairs with a fellow agent to find out what vital information the young woman had in her possession.Soon an arrest is made in Lila&’s murder, and to Elena&’s horror, the accused is none other than her own grandfather, who claims his political enemies are trying to frame him. But who are these enemies, and how can Elena defend this man she barely knows? Nevertheless, determined to clear his name and save her family from disgrace, she delves into the details of her grandfather&’s investments and discovers that his business secrets run deep. As Elena begins to question his loyalties, she wonders if she can trust anyone in this threatening new world order.
A Darker Reality: An Elena Standish Novel (Elena Standish Ser. #3)
by Anne PerryThe third novel in Anne Perry's breathtakingly tense and exciting spy thriller series, featuring young British photographer and secret agent Elena Standish, set in the 1930s when the world was a place of increasing fear and uncertainty... Spring, 1934. With the threat of war looming, political tensions begin to rise... Elena Standish, a young English photographer who works for British Intelligence, is visiting her grandparents' home in Washington DC when tragedy strikes. A lavish party is held to mark her grandparent's sixtieth wedding anniversary and Elena takes pride in capturing the event on camera, but when the beautiful wife of a renowned scientist is found murdered in the driveway, allegedly run over by Elena's grandfather's car, Elena's world is turned upside down.Arrested on suspicion of murder, Wyatt Baylor protests his innocence, claiming he has enemies who are trying to frame him. But who are these enemies and how can Elena defend a man she barely knows? Turning to secret agent James Allenby for help, Elena must uncover the truth behind the events of that fateful night. But can she trust Allenby or her family and is she willing to risk everything in her pursuit of the truth?
A Darker Sea: Master Commandant Putnam and the War of 1812 (A Bliven Putnam Naval Adventure #2)
by James L. HaleyThe second installment of the gripping naval saga by award-winning historian James L. Haley, featuring Commander Bliven Putnam, chronicling the build up to the biggest military conflict between the United States and Britain after the Revolution—the War of 1812.At the opening of the War of 1812, the British control the most powerful navy on earth, and Americans are again victims of piracy. Bliven Putnam, late of the Battle of Tripoli, is dispatched to Charleston to outfit and take command of a new 20-gun brig, the USS Tempest. Later, aboard the Constitution, he sails into the furious early fighting of the war. Prowling the South Atlantic in the Tempest, Bliven takes prizes and disrupts British merchant shipping, until he is overhauled, overmatched, and disastrously defeated by the frigate HMS Java. Its captain proves to be Lord Arthur Kington, whom Bliven had so disastrously met in Naples. On board he also finds his old friend Sam Bandy, one of the Java's pressed American seamen kidnapped into British service. Their whispered plans to foment a mutiny among the captives may see them hang, when the Constitution looms over the horizon for one of the most famous battles of the War of 1812 in a gripping, high-wire conclusion. With exquisite detail and guns-blazing action, A Darker Sea illuminates an unforgettable period in American history.
A Darker Shade Of Magic (Shades of Magic #1)
by V. E. SchwabSTEP INTO A UNIVERSE OF DARING ADVENTURE, THRILLING POWER, AND MULTIPLE LONDONS.<P><P> Kell is one of the last Travelers-magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes, connected by one magical city.<P> There's Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, and with one mad king-George III. Red London, where life and magic are revered-and where Kell was raised alongside Rhys Maresh, the rougish heir to a flourishing empire. White London-a place where people fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London. But no one speaks of that now.<P> Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, ambassador of the Maresh empire, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.<P> Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.<P> Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.
A Darker Shade of Blue
by John Harvey"A master of the craft. John Harvey is lights out one of the best." --Michael ConnellyJohn Harvey has been described as the master of British crime fiction: From the mean streets of London to the jazz clubs and clip joints of Soho, this is a world of broken families, revenge killings, and prostitution; drugs, guns, and corruption; a world of overstretched police forces and underpaid detectives; men and women who strive nonetheless for a kind of justice; a world in which everything, even friendship, has a price. Featuring characters like Frank Elder, who tried to turn his back on police work and failed; Jack Kiley, ex-cop and now a London-based PI; and the renowned jazz loving and much-loved Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick, John Harvey's finely-crafted vignettes perfectly encapsulate life in the badlands of contemporary Britain.
A Darker Shade of Blue: Stories
by John Harvey"A master of the craft. John Harvey is lights out one of the best."--Michael Connelly John Harvey has been described as the master of British crime fiction: From the mean streets of London to the jazz clubs and clip joints of Soho, this is a world of broken families, revenge killings, and prostitution; drugs, guns, and corruption; a world of overstretched police forces and underpaid detectives; men and women who strive nonetheless for a kind of justice; a world in which everything, even friendship, has a price. Featuring characters like Frank Elder, who tried to turn his back on police work and failed; Jack Kiley, ex-cop and now a London-based PI; and the renowned jazz loving and much-loved Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick, John Harvey's finely-crafted vignettes perfectly encapsulate life in the badlands of contemporary Britain.
A Darker Shade of Dead
by Bianca D' ArcIntrigue, terrifying betrayals, and a dangerously commanding hero make Bianca D'Arc's newest paranormal romance an irresistible temptation. . . Tapped for a classified military program, Dr. Eileen McCormick has nothing left to lose. Bad enough her genetic experiments were used to turn innocent victims into zombies; worse still, a ruthless ex-colleague is threatening to expose her unless she joins his sinister research project. Now the only way she can set things right is to develop an antidote under the watchful blue eyes of Commander Matt Sykes. And the last thing Eileen needs is Matt's penetrating gaze, easy understanding, and compelling kiss uncovering all her deepest secrets. . . Matt has a sixth-sense for lies as well as danger, and Eileen promises plenty of both. She's the only person who can eradicate the zombie virus before it reaches epidemic proportions, but he still can't let her passionate determination affect his steely cool. . .or keep him from discovering where her true loyalties lie. But as the clock ticks down, Matt and Eileen's uneasy trust may be their only way to avert catastrophe--if it doesn't get them killed first. . .
A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories Of Body Horror By Women Writers
by Joyce Carol OatesJoyce Carol Oates assembles an outstanding cast of authors—including Margaret Atwood, Tananarive Due, and Megan Abbott—to explore, subvert, and reinvent one of the most vital subgenres of horror WHILE THE COMMON BELIEF is that "body horror" as a subgenre of horror fiction dates back to the 1970s, Joyce Carol Oates suggests that Medusa, the snake-haired gorgon in Greek mythology, is the "quintessential emblem of female body horror." In A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories of Body Horror by Women Writers, Oates has assembled a spectacular cast to explore this subgenre focusing on distortions to the human body in the most fascinating of ways. "Should we know nothing of the female monsters of antiquity," Oates writes in her introduction to the volume, "still we would know that body horror in its myriad manifestations speaks most powerfully to women and girls. To be female is to inhabit a body that is by nature vulnerable to forcible invasion, susceptible to impregnation and repeated pregnancies, condemned to suffer childbirth, often in the past early deaths in childbirth and in the aftermath of childbirth."
A Darker Shade of Sweden: Original Stories by Sweden's Greatest Crime Writers
by Stieg Larsson Per Wahlöö Henning Mankell Asa Larsson Maj Sjowall John-Henri Holmberg Henning Nesser Sara StridsbergEver since Stieg Larsson shone a light on the brilliance of Swedish crime writing with his acclaimed and bestselling Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, readers around the world have devoured fiction by some of the greatest masters of the genre. In this landmark and unique publication, Sweden’s most distinguished and best-loved crime writers have contributed stories to an anthology that promises to sate the desire to read about the dark side of Sweden.Containing seventeen stories, never before published in English, A Darker Shade of Sweden illuminates this beguiling country and its inhabitants as never before. Included are stories from such Swedish literary luminaries as: Stieg Larsson Henning Mankell Åsa Larsson Eva Gabrielsson
A Darker Side
by Shirley WellsForensic psychologist, Jill Kennedy, has given up police work to enjoy a quiet life in the Lancashire village of Kelton Bridge, but when Martin Hayden, a seventeen-year-old schoolboy, is murdered, DCI Max Trentham, Jill's ex-colleague and ex-lover, wants her back at work.As they hunt Martin's killer, they discover that nothing is as it seems. For a start, it seems likely that Martin, not the innocent child his parents claim, wasn't above a spot of blackmail. On top of that, Martin's father isn't the distraught parent one would expect, and his mother is determined to take her own secrets to the grave.When the killer strikes again, Jill and Max find themselves in a desperate race against time...
A Darker Side
by Shirley WellsForensic psychologist, Jill Kennedy, has given up police work to enjoy a quiet life in the Lancashire village of Kelton Bridge, but when Martin Hayden, a seventeen-year-old schoolboy, is murdered, DCI Max Trentham, Jill's ex-colleague and ex-lover, wants her back at work.As they hunt Martin's killer, they discover that nothing is as it seems. For a start, it seems likely that Martin, not the innocent child his parents claim, wasn't above a spot of blackmail. On top of that, Martin's father isn't the distraught parent one would expect, and his mother is determined to take her own secrets to the grave.When the killer strikes again, Jill and Max find themselves in a desperate race against time...
A Darker Side of Paradise
by R.J. ElloryA brand new thriller from the internationally bestselling author of A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS****Rookie police officer Rachel Hoffman has never seen a dead body before.It will not be her last.Her first murder case is a young woman - sent off to sleep with a mysterious note that quotes from an eight-hundred year old book: Dante's Divine Comedy.So begins an investigation that will haunt her for the rest of her life, and lead Rachel on a descent into obsession that upends everything she thought she knew about justice.As the killings unfold over the decades, Rachel's obsession will drive her from small-town America through the streets of NYC, to a revelation that will cost her everything.Because every case she thought she solved was a lie.And the truth is more dangerous than she could have imagined.**** PRAISE FOR R.J. ELLORY 'Beautiful and haunting... A tour de force' MICHAEL CONNELLY 'Beautifully written novels that are also great mysteries' JAMES PATTERSON 'A uniquely gifted, passionate, and powerful writer' ALAN FURST 'In the top flight of crime writing' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'The master of the genre' CLIVE CUSSLER
A Darker Side of Paradise
by R.J. ElloryA brand new thriller from the internationally bestselling author of A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS****Rookie police officer Rachel Hoffman has never seen a dead body before.It will not be her last.Her first murder case is a young woman - sent off to sleep with a mysterious note that quotes from an eight-hundred year old book: Dante's Divine Comedy.So begins an investigation that will haunt her for the rest of her life, and lead Rachel on a descent into obsession that upends everything she thought she knew about justice.As the killings unfold over the decades, Rachel's obsession will drive her from small-town America through the streets of NYC, to a revelation that will cost her everything.Because every case she thought she solved was a lie.And the truth is more dangerous than she could have imagined.**** PRAISE FOR R.J. ELLORY 'Beautiful and haunting... A tour de force' MICHAEL CONNELLY 'Beautifully written novels that are also great mysteries' JAMES PATTERSON 'A uniquely gifted, passionate, and powerful writer' ALAN FURST 'In the top flight of crime writing' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'The master of the genre' CLIVE CUSSLER
A Darker Side of Paradise
by R.J. ElloryA brand new thriller from the internationally bestselling author of A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS****Rookie police officer Rachel Hoffman has never seen a dead body before.It will not be her last.Her first murder case is a young woman - sent off to sleep with a mysterious note that quotes from an eight-hundred year old book: Dante's Divine Comedy.So begins an investigation that will haunt her for the rest of her life, and lead Rachel on a descent into obsession that upends everything she thought she knew about justice.As the killings unfold over the decades, Rachel's obsession will drive her from small-town America through the streets of NYC, to a revelation that will cost her everything.Because every case she thought she solved was a lie.And the truth is more dangerous than she could have imagined.**** PRAISE FOR R.J. ELLORY 'Beautiful and haunting... A tour de force' MICHAEL CONNELLY 'Beautifully written novels that are also great mysteries' JAMES PATTERSON 'A uniquely gifted, passionate, and powerful writer' ALAN FURST 'In the top flight of crime writing' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'The master of the genre' CLIVE CUSSLER
A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing From Soil to Stars
by Erin SharkeyA vibrant collection of personal and lyric essays in conversation with archival objects of Black history and memory. <P><P> What are the politics of nature? Who owns it, where is it, what role does it play in our lives? Does it need to be tamed? Are we ourselves natural? In A Darker Wilderness, a constellation of luminary writers reflect on the significance of nature in their lived experience and on the role of nature in the lives of Black folks in the United States. Each of these essays engages with a single archival object, whether directly or obliquely, exploring stories spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles, traveling from roots to space and finding rich Blackness everywhere. <P><P> Erin Sharkey considers Benjamin Banneker’s 1795 almanac, as she follows the passing of seasons in an urban garden in Buffalo. Naima Penniman reflects on a statue of Haitian revolutionary François Makandal, within her own pursuit of environmental justice. Ama Codjoe meditates on rain, hair, protest, and freedom via a photo of a young woman during a civil rights demonstration in Alabama. And so on—with wide-ranging contributions from Carolyn Finney, Ronald Greer II, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Sean Hill, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Glynn Pogue, Katie Robinson, and Lauret Savoy—unearthing evidence of the ways Black people’s relationship to the natural world has persevered through colonialism, slavery, state-sponsored violence, and structurally racist policies like Jim Crow and redlining. <P><P> A scrapbook, a family chest, a quilt—and an astounding work of historical engagement and literary accomplishment—A Darker Wilderness is a collection brimming with abundance and insight.
A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars
by Erin SharkeyA vibrant collection of personal and lyric essays in conversation with archival objects of Black history and memory.What are the politics of nature? Who owns it, where is it, what role does it play in our lives? Does it need to be tamed? Are we ourselves natural? In A Darker Wilderness, a constellation of luminary writers reflect on the significance of nature in their lived experience and on the role of nature in the lives of Black folks in the United States. Each of these essays engages with a single archival object, whether directly or obliquely, exploring stories spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles, traveling from roots to space and finding rich Blackness everywhere.Erin Sharkey considers Benjamin Banneker’s 1795 almanac, as she follows the passing of seasons in an urban garden in Buffalo. Naima Penniman reflects on a statue of Haitian revolutionary François Makandal, within her own pursuit of environmental justice. Ama Codjoe meditates on rain, hair, protest, and freedom via a photo of a young woman during a civil rights demonstration in Alabama. And so on—with wide-ranging contributions from Carolyn Finney, Ronald Greer II, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Sean Hill, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Glynn Pogue, Katie Robinson, and Lauret Savoy—unearthing evidence of the ways Black people’s relationship to the natural world has persevered through colonialism, slavery, state-sponsored violence, and structurally racist policies like Jim Crow and redlining.A scrapbook, a family chest, a quilt—and an astounding work of historical engagement and literary accomplishment—A Darker Wilderness is a collection brimming with abundance and insight.
A Darkling Plain (The Hungry City Chronicles, Book #4)
by Philip ReeveThe once-great traction city of London is now just a radioactive wreck, a ruin haunted by electrical discharges and the dashed hopes of the people who once called it home-people like Tom Natsworthy. Twenty years after he fled, intending never to return, he discovers that something stirs in the remains of the old city. Tom and his daughter, Wren, aren't the only people interested in London. The desperate armies of the Traction Cities and the Green Storm are also closing in, certain that whatever is taking shape within the city holds the key to victory in their never-ending war. But it may be too late. Even as Tom and Wren hurry to uncover the mystery of London, Hester Shaw-estranged from her husband and her daughter-tracks the resurrected Stalker Fang, who has found another way to end the war and all life on the planet once and for all.
A Darkling Plain: A Darkling Plain (Mortal Engines #4)
by Philip ReeveMortal Engines is now a major motion picture produced by Peter Jackson!* "Reeve's [Mortal Engines] remains a landmark of visionary imagination." -- School Library Journal, starred review"A breathtaking work of imagination, Hester Shaw is a heroine for the ages. The moment we finished reading [Mortal Engines] we knew we wanted to make it into a movie." -- Producer Peter JacksonLondon is a radioactive ruin.Tom and Wren discover that the old predator city hides an awesome secret that could bring an end to the war. But as they risk their lives in its dark underbelly, time is running out. Alone and far away, Hester faces a fanatical enemy who possesses the weapons and the will to destroy the entire human race.The final book in the Mortal Engines series, Philip Reeve's A Darkling Plain is the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.Mortal Engines is now a major motion picture produced by Peter Jackson!
A Darkly Beating Heart
by Lindsay SmithA troubled girl confronts her personal demons in this time-travel thriller alternating between present day and 19th century Japan.No one knows how to handle Reiko. She is full of hatred; all she can think about is how to best hurt herself and those people closest to her. After a failed suicide attempt at her home in Seattle, Reiko's parents send her to spend the summer with family in Japan, hoping she will learn to control her emotions. But while visiting Kuramagi, a historic village preserved to reflect the nineteenth-century Edo period, Reiko finds herself slipping backward in time into the nineteenth-century life of Miyu, a young woman even more vengeful than Reiko herself. Reiko loves escaping into Miyu's life . . . until she discovers Kuramagi's dark secret and must face down Miyu's demons as well as her own.
A Darkness Absolute: A Novel (Casey Duncan Novels #2)
by Kelley ArmstrongWhen experienced homicide detective Casey Duncan first moved to the secret town of Rockton, she expected a safe haven for people like her, people running from their past misdeeds and past lives. She knew living in Rockton meant living off-the-grid completely: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council’s approval. What she didn’t expect is that Rockton comes with its own set of secrets and dangers. Now, in A Darkness Absolute, Casey and her fellow Rockton sheriff’s deputy Will chase a cabin-fevered resident into the woods, where they are stranded in a blizzard. Taking shelter in a cave, they discover a former resident who’s been held captive for over a year. When the bodies of two other women turn up, Casey and her colleagues must find out if it’s an outsider behind the killings or if the answer is more complicated than that...before another victim goes missing.Casey Duncan returns in another heart-racing thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.
A Darkness Absolute: A Rockton Thriller (City of the Lost #2)
by Kelley ArmstrongPeople disappear to Rockton so no-one can find them. But the trouble is people also disappear from Rockton. New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling author and master of thrills Kelley Armstrong returns to Rockton for more page-turning suspense, following her #1 national bestseller, City of the Lost.It's winter in Rockton, a little town hidden deep in the wilds of the Yukon. The town exists for people who need to escape their pasts, though it's not clear if those in hiding are victims or perpetrators. Or, when the lines gets blurred, maybe both. Ask Casey. She's been used, betrayed, beaten. But she's also killed someone. She moved to Rockton to help her best friend, Diana. Ex-best friend. Diana lied to get Casey to come with her; she used her and she almost got her killed. But Casey decided to stay anyway, to work as a detective alongside her new boyfriend and the town's sheriff, Eric Dalton. Fresh off solving a series of grisly murders, Casey and Deputy Will Anders get stranded in a blizzard while they're tracking a runner from the town. Seeking shelter in a cave, they stumble across a woman who's been imprisoned in a deep well. Nicole Chavez--whom everybody thought had run away from town and died in the woods more than a year earlier--is alive. Barely. But she can't identify her captor: she's never seen his face. Was she taken by one of the hostiles who inhabit the wilderness around the town? Or is Casey facing something even worse? In a town where everyone lies about their past and lives under assumed identities, it's very easy to hide your true nature...
A Darkness Descending: A Mystery in Florence
by Christobel KentThe secret world of a murder victim leads detective Sandro Cellini to uncover the hidden life of a woman consumed by a deadly obsession.When the driven, charismatic leader of a Florentine political movement collapses at a rally, his young party immediately comes under threat. And when it emerges that his wife, Flavia, has disappeared, leaving behind not only a devastated husband but their newborn son, the political becomes dangerously personal—and Detective Inspector Sandro Cellini is summoned to investigate. The trail leads to a somber seaside town, where Flavia chose to end her life. But Cellini isn't satisfied—why would one so young and with so much to live for walk away from all she loves? As he digs into Flavia's secret world, however, Sandro uncovers the hidden life of a woman consumed with private passions and a dark, deadly obsession—a stark reminder that life in modern Italy has a perilous edge, fueled as much by rage as desire.
A Darkness Descending: A Mystery in Florence (Sandro Cellini Ser.)
by Christobel KentWhen the driven, charismatic leader of a Florentine political movement collapses at a rally, his young party immediately comes under threat. And when it emerges that his wife, Flavia, has disappeared, leaving behind not only a devastated husband but their newborn son, the political becomes dangerously personal--and Detective Inspector Sandro Cellini is summoned to investigate. The trail leads to a somber seaside town, where Flavia chose to end her life. But Cellini isn't satisfied--why would someone so young and with so much to live for walk away from all she loves? As he digs into Flavia's secret world, however, Sandro uncovers the hidden life of a woman consumed with private passions and a dark, deadly obsession--a stark reminder that life in modern Italy has a perilous edge, fueled as much by rage as desire.
A Darkness Forged in Fire
by Chris EvansRejected by their own kind for bearing the mark of the Shadow Monarch, the Iron Elves chose instead to serve with the human armies of the Calahrian Empire, hoping through their dedication and discipline to wipe out the stain of their birth. Their reputation is legendary -- until their commander, Konowa Swiftdragon, takes it upon himself -- for the best of reasons -- to assassinate the Viceroy. Court-martialled and exiled to the forest he despises, his beloved regiment disgraced, dishonoured and disbanded, Konowa finds himself suddenly recalled and ordered to re-form the Iron Elves for one last reconnaissance mission. But the new Iron Elves are not at all the same as they were before, and the mission is a suicidal one, with more at stake than Konowa could possibly have imagined. For the Shadow Monarch and her allies have harnessed destructive forces with the power to tear worlds apart -- and those who bear her mark have a destiny greater than they know. So begins an heroic journey in the company of a motley band of misfits, rebels and outcasts, with a central character whose engaging, brilliantly realised blend of cynicism, dry humour, duty and anguish make him unlike any other in fantasy fiction.