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Dead Beat

Published
2026
Language
English

Synopsis

Alex Stern survived the descent into hell, but the gate she opened behind her didn't close. Demons are slipping through into New Haven, feeding on the living and unsettling the dead, and it is only a matter of time before the doors to the underworld open fully.

To stop it, Alex and her allies have to go deeper into Yale's secret societies than ever before, and confront a truth hidden in Alex's own blood. She is also up against a corrupt Lethe Board and a vampire with his own ties to the societies, even as she tries to hold on to the future Yale once promised her.

Darlington, her mentor, is back in the flesh after his time in hell — but not unchanged, and carrying dangerous new power. The third book in Leigh Bardugo's Alex Stern series closes out the trilogy that began with Ninth House and Hell Bent.

About the author

L
Leigh Bardugo

Leigh Bardugo is an American fantasy author, born in Jerusalem on 6 April 1975 and raised in Southern California. She graduated from Yale University with a degree in English in 1997, and worked in journalism, copywriting, and make-up and special effects before publishing her first novel. Her debut, Shadow and Bone (2012), opened the Grishaverse, which now spans the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, the King of Scars duology, and companion volumes including The Language of Thorn...

Characters

Daniel ArlingtonProtagonist
Alex SternProtagonist

Yale student who can see ghosts and oversees the university's occult societies for Lethe House.

Pamela DawesSupporting
Abel TurnerSupporting
Mercy ZhaoSupporting
All characters in Dead Beat