The Night Dahlia
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4.4 • 9 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Laytham Ballard once protected humanity as part of the Nightwise, a secret order of modern-day mages dedicating to holding hellish supernatural forces at bay, but that was before a string of sadistic ritual murders shook everything he believed in—and sent him down a much darker path. One that has already cost him most of his soul, as well as everything he once held dear.
Now a powerful faerie mob boss has hired Ballard to find his lost-lost daughter, who went missing several years ago. The long-cold trail leads him across the globe, from the luxurious playgrounds of the rich and famous to the seedy occult underbelly of Los Angeles, where creatures of myth and legend mingle with street gangs and sex clubs, and where Ballard finds his own guilty past waiting for him around every shadowy corner. To find Caern Ankou, he will have to confront old enemies, former friends and allies, and a grisly cold case that has haunted him for years.
But is Caern still alive? And, perhaps more importantly, does she even want to be found?
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the bloody follow-up to 2015's Nightwise, set in a magical alternate present day, legendary wizard Laytham Ballard must find a ruthless Fae crime boss's missing daughter so he can turn her over to her betrothed, in return for a true prize: his capacity for joy, which he bartered away on a previous job. Caern Ankou was only 13 when she went missing in 2009, and the trail has gone ice cold. Along for the ride, to Ballard's consternation, is Vigil Burris, Elf knight and Theo Ankou's right-hand man. Bouncing from glamorous Greek islands to the seediest of L.A. nightclubs, the complicated Ballard, who narrates with wry, pitch-black humor, must face down murderous gangs wielding Aztec magic, an assassin from a rival Fae family, and even Charles Manson himself. Luckily, Ballard slings magic like an Old West gunfighter and has many talented allies in low places. Belcher is a natural storyteller, and his crackling fight scenes spit sparks of magic and mayhem; however, as satisfying as it is when Ballard lays waste to the vilest of foes, readers may be disturbed by the casual cruelty he inflicts on others. (The opening scene of a possessed nine-year-old shooting his classmates, and Ballard's brutal exorcism of the killer spirit animating the child, will serve as ample warning of what lies in store.) This dark, imaginative tale will appeal to fans of gritty, no-holds-barred urban fantasy and horror.
