New Releases by BARBARA HAMBLY

Welcome to Hollywood of the 1920s: a world filled with glamour, fake names . . . and the occasional felony! July, 1924. After nine months of living in Hollywood and working as a companion to her beautiful silent-movie star sister-in-law, young British widow Emma Blackstone is settling into her new role: doctoring film scenarios whenever the regular scenarist is overwhelmed with work, which seems to be most of the time. Shoots for the Western movie Our Tiny Miracle are in full swing, with little seven-year-old Susy Sweetchild playing the lead and acting most professionally. Maybe too professionally, Emma thinks, shocked to the core when the child star is nearly killed in a stunt scene and her mother - former screen siren Selina Sutton - seems only to care that Susy gets the job done. But Emma''s concerns only worsen when news reaches her that Susy and her mother have been kidnapped. The ransom note says to keep the cops out of it, so it''s up to Emma and Kitty to find them before the unthinkable happens and Emma is forced to rewrite Our Tiny Miracle with a far more tragic ending . . . New York Times bestselling author Barbara Hambly once again brings the glamour and intrigue of Hollywood to life! An unputdownable mystery for fans of female-fronted historical mysteries set in the roaring twenties.

A cursed statue . . . A haunted house . . . A seemingly supernatural death . . . The unexpected arrival of a friend from his past plunges musician, sleuth and free man of color Benjamin January into an old, unsolved case in this historical mystery set in New Orleans \"Outstanding . . . fastidious period detail, and a consistently surprising investigation\" Publishers Weekly Starred Review December 1840. Surgeon turned piano-player Benjamin January is looking forward to a peaceful holiday with his family. But the arrival of an old friend brings unexpected news - and unexpected danger. Persephone Jondrette has found Arithmus: a Sudanese man with extraordinary mental abilities who January last saw in France, nearly fifteen years ago, during a ghost-hunting expedition to a haunted chateau. January and his friends survived the experience . . . but Arithmus'' benefactor, the British explorer Deverel Wishart, did not. He was discovered dead one morning, his face twisted in horror, and shortly afterwards Arithmus vanished, never to be seen again. Did Deverel succumb to the chateau''s ghosts - or did Arithmus murder him and run away? January is determined to uncover the truth about the tragic incident from his past, and clear his old friend''s name - but even he isn''t prepared for what happens next . . . The Nubian''s Curse by NYT-bestselling author Barbara Hambly is the latest instalment of the critically acclaimed historical mystery series featuring talented amateur sleuth and free man of color, Benjamin January.

May, 1924. When renowned film director Ernest Zapolya calls Emma Blackstone - companion to Hollywood movie star Kitty Flint - and demands to see Kitty at once, Emma''s not surprised. Until, that is, he adds that lives depend on it. Emma and Kitty investigate, and after a shocking discovery, the lives on the line soon include their own...

A young woman rises from the streets to battle a sinister evil in this magical fantasy adventure by the bestselling author of the Darwath series. Something is amiss with the world’s magic. Spells don’t work the way they used to—when they work at all. Only the powers of the Crystal Mages remain as they were, powers founded on the use of the mystical element adamis, the harvesting of which has enslaved the peoples of the Twilight Lands. They need a hero. At the same time, ravenous beasts have begun to appear, legendary creatures that seem to be proof against any magic. And Clea Stylachos, granddaughter of a great sage of the Twilight people, has reason to fear that the Crystal Mages, instead of seeking to defeat these insanely destructive monsters, are attempting to weaponize them in their quest for power. Clea’s only hope to save her people is a wizard who retains his power, one who will not betray her, either to the great merchant houses or to the all-entangling web of the Crystal Mages. But that wizard—Ithrazel the Cursed, destroyer of a city and magically imprisoned to suffer undying, unremitting torment—wants nothing to do with saving the world, helping a hero, or unraveling the terrible secret at the heart of the Crystal Mages’ plans. From the slums and tunnels of the slave-city of Morne, to the watery wilderness of the Twilight lands, to the halls of her father’s palace and the spell-soaked mysteries of the Crystal Mages’ House of Glass, Clea works to untwist the deadly riddles of magic and monsters—to free her mother’s disenfranchised people from slavery under her father’s conquering forces. To save her mageborn brother from the Crystal Mages’ power; to control a sorcerer legendary for his deed of evil; to keep her own small band of friends one step ahead of her father’s troops and the Crystal Order’s spells. She is the Iron Princess, and she knows she must prevail or die. But at what cost to herself? “Rich and complex, The Iron Princess is an absolute treat for fantasy fans. With thrilling characters and lush, nuanced world-building, this one will burn a hole through the nightstand and leave readers with wild dreams of family secrets, dynastic intrigue, and unexpected heroes who are so much more than they appear.” —Cherie Priest, author of Boneshaker Praise for New York Times–bestseller Barbara Hambly “A fabulously talented writer.” —Charlaine Harris, bestselling author “I think what is really special about [Hambly’s] books . . . is a richness of setting combined with a cast of characters that you’d love to actually know.” —SFSite “Elegant, intelligent, and entertaining.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review on Dragonshadow

Musician, sleuth and free man of color Benjamin January gets mixed in politics, with murderous results. \"The historical backdrop is vivid, and the writing is exquisite. One of the best in a not-to-be-missed series\" - Booklist Starred Review September, 1840. A giant rally is being planned in New Orleans to stir up support for presidential candidate William Henry Harrison: the Indian-killing, hard-cider-drinking, wannabe \"people''s president\". Trained surgeon turned piano-player Benjamin January has little use for politicians. But the run-up to the rally is packed with balls and dinner parties, and the meagre pay is sorely needed. Soon, however, January has more to worry about than keeping his beloved family fed and safe. During an elegant reception thrown by New Orleans'' local Whig notables, the son of a prominent politician gets into a fist-fight with a rival over beautiful young flirt Marie-Joyeuse Maginot - and, the day after the rally is over, Marie-Joyeuse turns up dead. The only black person amongst the initial suspects is arrested immediately: January''s dear friend, Catherine Clisson. With Catherine''s life on the line, January is determined to uncover the truth and prove her innocence. But his adversaries are powerful politicians, and the clock is ticking . . .

Explore twenty-four imaginative tales crafted by some of today’s best writers of science fiction and fantasy, all guests on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers during its second year, and including several international bestsellers and winners of every major award in the field, as well as newer authors just beginning what promise to be stellar careers. A woman seeking the power to see the evil hiding within others regrets receiving it. Letters written by a wizard in the past threaten a queen’s reign in the present. Competing for Earth, a human wrestler faces an alien shapeshifter in an interstellar tournament. A guide in Tibet must weigh the good of his people when asked to lead a westerner to the fabled realm of Shangri. An activist imprisoned for illegal genetic modification works with the materials at hand and the threads of the multiverse to make the world—a world, at least—a better place. A demonic agent sent to help a human turns the tables on his summoner. Like the “cabinets of curiosities” created by collectors of the sixteenth century, Shapers of Worlds Volume II displays a varied array of thought-provoking delights: tales of humour and sorrow, darkness and light, and hope and despair that are full of adventure, full of life, and sometimes full of regret. There are stories set in alternate histories, in possible futures, near and far, and in the here-and-now, taking place on Earth, on distant planets, or in fantastic realms. All arise from the innate need of human beings to create, to imagine . . . to shape worlds. Praise for Shapers of Worlds Volume I: “One of the most wide-ranging volumes I’ve encountered in terms of sub-genre. It’s rather like a speculative fiction buffet, offering steampunk, fantasy, military fiction, magic, space opera, post-apocalyptic, hard science fiction, and others . . . Inventive and varied, the collection has a lot to offer for those seeking an interesting, entertaining, and thought-provoking read.” – Lisa Timpf, The Future Fire

No one can talk to the dead . . . can they? Free man of color Benjamin January gets caught up in a strange, spiritual world that might lead to his own demise, as he hunts for a missing teenager in this gripping, atmospheric historical mystery. New Orleans, 1840. Freshly home from a dangerous journey, that last thing Benjamin January wants to do is leave his wife and young sons again. But when old friends Henri and Chloe Viellard ask for his help tracking down a missing girl in distant New York, he can''t say no. Three weeks ago, seventeen-year-old Eve Russell boarded a steam-boat - and never got off it. Mrs Russell is adamant Eve''s been kidnapped, but how could someone remove a teenager from a crowded deck in broad daylight? And why would anyone target Eve? The answer lies in New York, a hotbed of new religions and beliefs, of human circuses and freak shows . . . and of blackbirders, who''ll use any opportunity to kidnap a free man of color and sell him into slavery. January''s determined to uncover the truth, but will he ever be able to return to New Orleans to share it?

Benjamin January heads to the \"Slaveholders'' Republic\" of Texas to locate a kidnapped girl and help a woman who saved him from the noose. April, 1840. Benjamin January knows no black person in their right mind would willingly go to the Republic of Texas but when his former pupil Selina Bellinger is kidnapped and enslaved, he has no choice. Once there he is saved from being hanged by Valentina Taggart, wife of the wealthy landowner of Rancho Perdition. After Valentina is accused of the murder of her husband, she in turn calls on Benjamin for help. To do so, he must abandon the safe haven of New Orleans, where people know he''s a free man, to return to the self-proclaimed \"Slaveholders'' Republic\". In a land still disputed between vengeful Comanche, disgruntled Mexican Tejanos, Americans who want to join the United States and those who want to keep Texas free, January must uncover what happened to Valentina''s husband. Behind lies, betrayals and rising political tensions lies the answer . . . but finding it could cost Ben his life.

Vampire Don Simon Ysido has been captured and held aboard a ship heading to the US to act as a slave, and Dr Lydia Asher must stop it . . . at any cost. March, 1917. The goal of every government involved in the Great War has been achieved: industrialist Spenser Cochran has drugged and enslaved a vampire, Don Simon Ysidro, to do his bidding, and is now on the way to the US aboard a luxury ship. Horrified, Dr Lydia Asher secures her passage on the vessel to rescue her friend from Cochran’s chemical thrall. Meanwhile, her husband makes a dangerous alliance with the vampires of Paris to send Lydia the information she needs about the drug. As they cross the Atlantic evidence mounts that another vampire is hiding aboard the ship, indiscriminately murdering passengers. Lydia knows she must solve both cases before the ship docks, and that breaking Cochran’s hold on Don Simon will not be enough . . . She must kill him.

Everyone at the family wedding was hoping someone would murder the bride ... The intriguing new Benjamin January mystery. “Don’t go to Cold Bayou, brother ... Nuthin’ good waiting for you there.” New Orleans, 1839. Despite his misgivings, Benjamin January has agreed to play the piano at the wedding of wealthy French Creole landowner Veryl St-Chinian. All is not well, for the marriage of 67-year-old, profoundly infatuated Uncle Veryl to an 18-year-old Irish tavern-slut spells potential disaster for everyone in the inter-married Viellard and St-Chinian clans. But the old man is determined to marry Miss Ellie Trask, and nothing will stand in his way. On the isolated plantation of Cold Bayou where the ceremony is to take place, tension is rife even before the body is discovered in the woods behind the dower house, its throat cut. A yet more disturbing turn of events sees January himself accused of the crime...

A novelette of 15,000 words, sequel to Hambly''s Sun Wolf and Starhawk novels. Former barbarian mercenary Sun Wolf re-visits the ruined fortress of the Wizard-King, hoping to find the books of magic that the dead sorcerer hoarded. He finds, instead, that a) the defenses and curses that Wizard-King set on his fortress are still very much active and b) there are other mages, as inexperienced as himself, in quest of those books: mages who will stop at nothing to get to them first.

Benjamin January investigates the murder of a mysterious Englishman in this absorbing New Orleans-set mystery. When British spymaster Sir John Oldmixton offers Benjamin January a hundred dollars to find the murderer of an Englishman whose body has been found floating in the New Basin Canal, Benjamin turns him down immediately. As a free man of colour in New Orleans in the sweltering July of 1839, he knows this is not something he should get mixed up in. But when clues to the dead man’s identity link the death to another murder, in another July in January’s past, he is reluctantly drawn into the investigation. Nine years ago in Paris he failed to catch a killer – with tragic consequences. Now in New Orleans he must unravel the earlier murder, the one that took place during the great revolt against the Bourbon kings, to solve the second killing. At stake is not merely a hundred dollars, but hidden treasure, the fate of an innocent woman – and the lives of January’s wife, son and unborn child.

During the carnage of World War One, James Asher joins forces with the vampires of Europe to counter an even deadlier threat. The vampires call them ‘The Others’. Neither living nor dead, the revenants are mindless and unstoppable – and in the carnage of the First World War, governments already running short of men to throw into battle might be very interested in soldiers who don’t ask questions and are hard to kill. Front-line volunteer nurse Lydia Asher is horrified to learn that someone has found a way to control revenants, and is creating them for this purpose. Back in London, Lydia’s husband, former spy James Asher, is even more appalled to learn that revenants are beginning to show up in England, on the loose. Since revenants devour vampires, the vampires of Europe – most of whom are at the Front, feeding completely unnoticed on the dying – join forces with the Ashers to find the source of the threat before the world is overwhelmed.

When Jubal Cain, the coordinator of the Underground Railroad system in Mississippi, is accused of murdering a chief member of the Railroad, Benjamin January steps in to unearth the true killer before their covers are blown.

A novelette of 10,000 words, sequel to the Sun Wolf and Starhawk series. When the lovely Mira visits the hermitage of the local wizard, the former barbarian mercenary Sun Wolf, to beg his help in rescuing her sweetheart from a traveling mage, Sun Wolf suspects that this is a trap set for him. In his duel with the enemy wizard, Sun Wolf is not only ignorant of how much magical technique his opponent knows, but is fairly certain that if he, Sun Wolf, uses magic at all, his own soul will be enslaved.

Benjamin January investigates the murder of a ‘conductor’ of the Underground Railway, helping slaves to freedom. Benjamin January is called up to Vicksburg, deep in cotton-plantation country, to help a wounded “conductor” of the Underground Railroad – the secret network of safe-houses that guide escaping slaves to freedom. When the chief “conductor” of the “station” is found murdered, Jubal Cain – the coordinator of the whole Railroad system in Mississippi – is accused of the crime. Since Cain can’t expose the nature of his involvement in the railroad, January has to step in and find the true killer, before their covers are blown. As January probes into the murky labyrinth of slaves, slave-holders, the fugitives who follow the “drinking gourd” north to freedom and those who help them on their way, he discovers that there is more to the situation than meets the eye, and that sometimes there are no easy answers.

A novelette of 12,000 words in the Benjamin January Free Man of Color historical mystery series. All of New Orleans is agog over Professor Tixall''s telescope, which can reportedly see life on the Moon. Rose Janvier is convinced that it''s a hoax, and a harmless one (though profitable for Professor Tixall), until one of her servants, looking through the telescope after hours, sees one of the "bat-people" of the Moon murder another one. Rose knows that murder has been done, but how do you prove it when the events supposedly took place on another planet?

Simon. Something frightful has happened to Jamie. Please come . . . When James Asher is found unconscious in the cemetery of the Church of St. Clare Pieds-Nus with multiple puncture-wounds in his throat and arms, his wife, Lydia, knows of only one person to call: the vampire Don Simon Ysidro. Old friend and old adversary, he is the only one who can help Lydia protect her unconscious, fevered husband from the vampires of Paris. Why James has been attacked – and why he was called to Paris in the first place – Lydia has no idea. But she knows that she must find out, and quickly. For with James wavering between life and death, and war descending on the world, their slim chance of saving themselves from the vampires grows slimmer with each passing day . . .

A novelette of 10,000 words, sequel to Hambly''s Darwath series. The Keep of Dare is an enclosed fortress: no one knows all its secrets and corners. When people start disappearing, the Archmage Ingold Inglorion and his two Californian companions - warrior Gil Patterson and novice wizard Rudy Solis - are faced with the possibility that some deadly entity is hiding in the darkness of the Keep. And the situation is not improved when Ingold himself disappears.

A novelette of 14,000 words, sequel to Hambly''s Darwath series. The teleporter is due to open between the Keep of Dare and an unknown Keep, lost for three thousand years - and Archmage Ingold Inglorion is snowed in fifty miles away and unable to be there to deal with whatever might be on the other side of that teleporter. California warrior-woman Gil Patterson, and California mage-in-training Rudy Solis, have to explore the unknown Keep on their own: to interpret its secrets, to prevent whatever might lurk there from following them back to the last Keep of humankind... and to destroy it when, in spite of their efforts, it does.

Sequel to the Sun Wolf and Starhawk series. In his quest for a wizard to teach him to use his powers, ex-mercenary captain Sun Wolf thinks he may have finally found one. Unfortunately, it looks like that wizard, whoever it is, has summoned a dragon to destroy an innocent town - and it''s the second dragon to afflict the town in two years. Yet the only wizard in the town itself is an untaught - and very pretty - little hedge-witch who sells perfumes and illusions, leaving Sun Wolf and his warrior partner Starhawk to hunt for the greater and more dangerous mage unaided.

A novelette of 12,000 words, sequel to Hambly''s Dragonsbane (Winterlands) series. When a visiting wizard calls at Alyn Hold with the news that the region is about to be attacked by a horrible monster, John Aversin, Dragonsbane and Thane of the Winterlands, and his wizardly partner Jenny Waynest, are much less upset than the Silver Mage thinks they should be. The Silver Mage demands that the whole countryside turn out to kill the Kraken once and for all; John points out that it would involve far fewer casualties if everyone simply moves out of its way for the three days (out of a hundred and fifty years) during which it comes ashore, easily determined by the behavior of the matriarch pig Damselblossom. When the Silver Mage insists upon a showdown, John begins to suspect his motives.

Benjamin January is forced to travel to Haiti to seek his family’s lost treasure, in order to save everything he holds dear When Jefferson Vitrack – the white half-brother of Benjamin January’s wife - turns up on January’s doorstep in the summer of 1838 claiming he has discovered a clue to the whereabouts of the family’s lost treasure, January has no hesitation about refusing to help look for it. For the treasure lies in Haiti, the island that was once France’s most profitable colony – until the blood-chilling repression practiced there by the whites upon their slaves triggered a savage rebellion. The world’s only Black Republic still looks with murderous mistrust upon any strangers who might set foot there, and January is in no hurry to go. But when Vitrack is murdered, and attempts are made on January’s wife and himself, he understands that he has no choice. He must seek the treasure himself, to draw the unknown killers into the open, a bloody trail that leads first to Cuba, then to Haiti, and finally to the secret that lies buried with the accursed gold.

When James Asher''s daughter is kidnapped by a Master Vampire, the stakes could not be higher. When James Asher and his wife Lydia''s baby daughter Miranda is kidnapped by the Master Vampire of London, the stakes are high: blindly follow the Master Vampire''s instructions, keep out of the way of the human networks that serves the vampires, destroy the interloper who seeks to seize control of the London Nest, and find the key to the Nest''s tortuous inner workings: The Book of the Kindred of Darkness. Even with the vampire Don Simon Ysidro on their side, there''s no guarantee that anything - or anyone - is who or what they appear to be. Nor is there any certainty that they''ll see their child again - or survive the experience themselves.

Three fantasy novels of war and wizardry by a “fabulously talented” New York Times–bestselling author (Charlaine Harris). In The Ladies of Mandrigyn, a brilliant mercenary must lead his army against the forces of the most powerful wizard alive. Gifted with courage, strength, and the intelligence to know when to fight, Sun Wolf is the greatest mercenary in a land overrun by war. With his first lieutenant, Starhawk, at his side, he has laid waste to countless cities, taking the best of their treasures for himself, and distributing the rest among his bloodthirsty crew. Then a woman comes to him, an emissary from the town of Mandrigyn, a lush port city recently sacked by a powerful, mad wizard of unmatched abilities. She offers Sun Wolf untold riches for the use of his army, but the captain is not fool enough to wage war against a magician. He refuses her offer, but that is not the end of it. The women of Mandrigyn can be very persuasive. In The Witches of Wenshar, to harness his newfound magical powers, Sun Wolf must cross the desert in search of a witch who can teach him the ways of sorcery. Accompanied by his lieutenant, Starhawk, he travels across the forbidding desert to the land of Wenshar, where witchcraft is said to flourish. There he seeks out a witch with powers far beyond her years, who is rumored to have mastered the ancient art of white magic. But when he and Starhawk finally reach her, there is evil in the air—an evil against which all their might is useless. Sun Wolf must learn to harness his newfound powers—or be taken by this sinister trap. In The Dark Hand of Magic, Sun Wolf must use his immature magical powers to rescue his old army from an evil wizard’s curse. A string of rotten luck has befallen his old crew’s latest campaign, and they have begun to suspect a curse. Their arrows break; their food rots; their tunnels cave in. They have heard rumors of Sun Wolf’s magical abilities, and beg for his help. But when he goes after whatever is targeting his men, he finds himself up against the deadliest force he has ever encountered.

Free man of color Benjamin January travels to Washington, DC, to track down a missing mathematician in this “excellent” pre–Civil War mystery (Publishers Weekly, starred review). New Orleans, 1838. Living in antebellum New Orleans as a free man of color, Benjamin January has always taken whatever work he could find. But when he suddenly loses his job playing piano at extravagant parties, he finds himself taking on an entirely new—and exceedingly dangerous—enterprise. Sugar planter Henri Viellard has hired Benjamin to travel with him to Washington, DC. Henri’s friend, an elderly English mathematician named Selwyn Singletary, was last seen in Washington before he went missing. With Benjamin’s help, Henri intends to track him down. Plunged into a murky world of spies, slave snatchers, and dirty politicians, Benjamin uncovers a coded secret that he attempts to decipher with the help of a young Edgar Allan Poe. But a powerful ring of conspirators doesn’t want the secret known. And they’re ready to kill anyone who gets in their way.

The crew of the Nautilus,a battered Starship of mysterious origin, is beamed aboard the Starship Enterprise™.The group claims they are freedom fighters from the future working to save the Federation from the Consilium -- a group of corrupt power-seekers. But when the Nautiluscrew members suddenly seize control of the U.S.S. Enterprise™,and a Starship from the future arrives to arrest the renegades, Kirk must separate his true allies from those who wish to destroy the Federation.

From a New York Times–bestselling author, three novels of a modern-day medievalist beset by murder and magic—“A fabulously talented writer” (Charlaine Harris). As a student of medieval history, Gil Patterson is a woman familiar with dark stories. She knows the Crusades, the Black Death, and the other horrors of the Middle Ages all too well, but it is another kind of atrocity that has begun to haunt her dreams. She sees forces of evil assaulting a beleaguered kingdom, whose kind people are on the brink of annihilation, and awakes each morning in a cold sweat. In The Time of the Dark, Gil dismisses the dreams until a wizard appears in her apartment. He has crossed into her dimension, passing through the fraying fabric of the universe, to ask her help. For mankind to survive he must protect an infant prince, whom he plans to hide in Gil''s world. She is about to get much closer to evil than she ever imagined. In The Walls of Air and The Armies of Daylight, Gil and Rudy know the world is no longer safe and there is nowhere to hide from the Dark. Since the Dark Ones returned, the world has been laid to waste. The land’s wizards have been slaughtered, its cities destroyed, and its people scattered in terror. Few have witnessed more of the destruction than Gil and Rudy, and both of them will need all their strength to survive this final challenge. Ingold, the master wizard, has devised a spell to hide the user from the deathly stare of the Dark, and he intends to use it to strike at their very heart. Finally, Gil, Rudy, and the rest of mankind’s survivors will take the offensive, bringing an end to this terrible war, for better or for worse.

The vampire hunting spy goes to China to investigate a new form of Undead lurking among Peking’s criminal underworld in this “lush and delicious read” (Publishers Weekly). China, 1912. James Asher, his brilliant wife Lydia, and the old occultist and vampire hunter Dr. Solomon Karlebach have journeyed to the new-born Republic of China to investigate the rumor that a mindless breed of Undead known as the Others have begun to multiply in the hills west of Peking. Even vampires fear the Others, but some factions of the criminal underworld plan to turn the powerful horde into an unstoppable weapon. Alongside his old vampire partner, Don Simon Ysidro, Asher embarks on a dangerous hunt. But meanwhile, somewhere in the city’s labyrinth, the Peking vampires—known as the Magistrates of Hell—are waiting with their own sinister agenda. “Balancing the excitement of dangerous chases through mines full of Undead with the intellectual satisfaction of solving a political mystery, this is a lush and delicious read.” —Publishers Weekly