Traitors Unseen

A Sinister Plot

Provisional Inspector Emerra Denault is working on a case with her mentor investigating some stolen money. Everything seems straightforward, but then she is accused of a crime she would never commit. On the run from both her enemies and her friends and not sure of which is which, Emerra must solve the mystery of her betrayal and uncover the plot that led to her misfortune. That plot, still in motion, is deep and deadly. It would give the city she loves over to relentless murderers bent on power. Emerra faces criminals, corruption, magic, villainous nobles, and rot within the Guild she serves. She must overcome them all to save Frosthelm and to stay alive.

Note: This is listed as Book 3 of the series, but it is a stand-alone story with different characters and a separate plotline from the first two. See below for details.

About the Inquisitors' Guild series

The Inqisitors' Guild is one of the branches of government in the medieval city of Frosthelm, and this book series tells the stories of the investigators, officers, and scouts that make up the Guild.

There are three books in this series so far. Flames Over Frosthelm was the first. A sequel to that book, The Outcast Crown, will be released later this year. That book relates the further adventures of some of the main characters of Flames Over Frosthelm. Both books are novel length (a little over120,000 words).

This book, Traitors Unseen, is set about ten years before the events of Flames Over Frosthelm. It shares a few characters with the later stories, but it is a separate story set in a different time. It is novella length (about 39,000 words).

All three books are complete adventures, fully resolved, and they can be enjoyed in any order. If you’re new to the Inquisitors’ Guild, I recommend starting with either Flames Over Frosthelm or Traitors Unseen.

Author's Note

Ever since I started reading the Oz books and Andrew Lang's fairy tale compendia in elementary school, I have loved fantasy. As I grew as a reader, I branched out into heroic and epic fantasy, starting with tales of heros like Conan and John Carter, set in places like Middle Earth and Witchworld. I also adored comedic fantasy, from Terry Pratchett to Neil Gaiman to a host of others, and my favorite tales were those where young heroes and heroines grew (or were forced) to play a role beyond their station, in many cases learning on the fly and making it up as they went along.

There are so many great authors working now trying out new ideas, pushing the fantasy genre in interesting new directions (some of them full of sparkly vampires or brooding antiheroes with anime hair). Despite all that innovation, it is hard for me to resist the draw of the classics. In my Inquisitor's Guild stories, I've tried to weave together many of my favorite threads from the books of my childhood, to write the kind of book I have always loved reading, both at 13 and at 50. If I've succeeded, this story should provide a fun mix of humor and adventure, a new world and a few new cultures, with derring-do and jokes along with some solid emotional touches, against a backdrop of a classic fantasy city, bustling with taverns, markets, nobles, politics, religions, thieves, and warriors.

There's magic, but it's limited to rare wizards, scholars, and artifacts, not pervasive, and it's not well understood. Everybody you meet is a human with human goals - no elves, dwarves, dragons, trolls, or Klingons. Although moral complexity is fascinating, and even the best people are not always their best selves, in general I like my good guys good, my bad guys bad, and the stakes high. I hope you do too.

Please enjoy Traitors Unseen.