What would you do to save your loved ones from slavery and a blood-draining serial killer?
Rook is an unapologetic thief, determined to do anything to ensure her mother and siblings survive the squalid and dangerous streets of Stamchester.
Rook slips, like a shadow, in and out of the homes of the ruling elite, the Avanish, and steals what she needs. She feels no regret, afterall, the Avanish have enslaved her people, the Saosuíasei, and worse, have now determined the Saosuíasei to be disposable and worthy of nothing other than death.
However, Rook is not the only shadowy figure in Stamchester. And far more deadly one haunts the filthy streets, striking fear into Avanish and Saosuíasei alike. A serial killer who drains every ounce of blood from his victims, and satisfies the elite's demand for blood to burn in the magical art of Bloodskill and enhance their own natural, and sometimes unnatural, abilities.
How can Rook outfox the serial killer and raise her people from the ashes left by the Avanish oppression?
A dark Victorian thriller. Perfect for fans of Charlie N. Holmberg's cozy mystery Spellbreaker and Susanna Clarke's enchanting and magical world of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
This book was an amazon bestseller on its initial release and has since been signed up to be converted into an audio book with an option for the second book in the duology which is due out in the autumn of 2021
Dirty, idle, drunken, lecherous: the Saosuíasei plague we face is grave. It is an ongoing source of contention in our city. What makes it the bitterest of pills is that this is a plague we brought upon ourselves, and we are all too aware of that.
We are all familiar with the actions of our fathers in years past. When we conquered Undténsian land but not Undténsian hearts, and the natives would not obey, the issue of labor became critical. What was the point in expending such energy on taking this land if we could not plumb its vast well of resources? To our forebears, the answer was simple: use the Saosuíasei. We had already taken all they had except their very islands, and we could not take those, for the people still lived upon them.
Our fathers hit upon what until recently we still viewed as an ingenious plan, a way to clear the islands and solve our labor problem with one action: clear the Saosuíaseis’ island and bring the people here. We would have their land, and their labor too. Didn’t the Sassymen, as we still so affectionately call them, complain that their lives were unlivable? That they desired better conditions, better food, a better life? Our progenitors offered them all of that, but what a mistake it was.
You can take a pig to a library, but that does not mean it can read. In a similar vein, our fathers found that you can give the Sassymen better lives, but that does not mean they will be grateful. Or co-operative. Or productive. Or, indeed, even happy. A generation on, the Saosuíasei have proved themselves every inch the dirty, idle, drunken, lecherous plague we see on the streets of Stamchester and so many other cities today.
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Vanesa Gómez Paniza
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