A BARGAIN WITH DARKNESS

Eliott’s genre-bending fantasy/thriller/romance novel, the second in a series, explores a hellish landscape.

The story opens amid the destruction and detritus left in the wake of the Swell Driver, a cataclysmic flood that has raged through the very heart of the violent, fantastical cityscape of Hell’s Labyrinth. The streets teem with sordid wreckage, and the waters have laid bare more than the buildings’ facades—the fragile peace of a community built on crime has been ripped from its foundations, laying bare a refuse-strewn path to power for those hungry enough to seize it. In this chaos, Count Ulan Gueritus, the Raving Blade, emerges from the shadows, seeking to inflict a reign of terror upon the masses. But the same darkness that spawned the Raving Blade forged the only man who can stop him: Vazeer the Lash. Unfairly implicated in Gueritus’ web of treason and desperate to protect those he loves, Lash initially hopes to outmaneuver the madman—but sometimes, justice must be born of blood. To stop the Raving Blade, Lash must realign with Radrin Blackstar, an assassin with his own agenda, and a host of former compatriots who would just as soon see Vazeer dead. As his city roils, Vazeer must consider how much darkness a man can take before its current pulls him under. In this second entry in the author’s Shadow Bidder series, the story’s gritty landscape is captured in gorgeous prose: “Even the street fires, which earlier had snapped and spit in vivid upheaval, were now but glum red mounds, simmering so low that the surrounding faces remained soiled by shadow.” Readers will find themselves continually on edge, questioning their loyalties and guessing at the next twist. This emotional investment is compelled by an excellently rendered cast of characters, chiefly Vazeer the Lash, a humorous and complex antihero. Radrin Blackstar provides a fascinating and ominous counterbalance as an allied assassin with unclear allegiances. Despite the novel’s cold and murky depths, the overall tone is hopeful, pulling audiences into Lash’s vision for a city rebuilt. And though Lash’s reality is often brutal, the violence is rarely graphic.

A breathtaking installment of an unforgettable fantasy series.