Thursday 29 August 2013

Hadn’t the Pleasure # 67

The books that have been collecting dust for so long they have become stained from it



Fed up with his desk duty in the Imperial Arcane Library, book hunter Colin Bliss accepts a private commission to find The Sword’s Shadow, a legendary and dangerous witches’ grimoire. But to find the book, Colin must travel to the remote Western Isles and solve a centuries’ old murder.

It should be nothing more than an academic exercise, so why is dour — and unreasonably sexy — Magister Septimus Marx doing his best to keep Colin from accepting this mission — even going so far as to seduce Colin on their train journey north?

Septimus is not the only problem. Who is the strange fairy woman that keeps appearing at inconvenient times? And who is working behind the scenes with the sinister adventuress Irania Briggs? And why do Colin’s employers at the Museum of the Literary Occult keep accusing Colin of betraying them?

As Colin digs deeper and deeper into the Long Island’s mysterious past, he begins to understand why Septimus is willing to stop him at any price — but by then, it’s too late to turn back.


The Darkling Thrush
 First published April 2010 by Loose Id
Second edition October 2012 by Josh Lanyon
iBook, 138 pages
Contemporary Mysterious Romance

The letter was addressed to Mr. Colin Bliss.
It sat on my desk, propped against the framed photograph of Anthony and me. This reminded me that, as we were no longer “an item,” I really needed to dispose of that photograph of my chief and me. It was bound to look a trifle like I was sucking up, and I’d already done enough of that in every conceivable form.