The Foxglove King

Lore has lived by her wits since childhood. She runs poisons for the cartel that took her in, keeps clear of the law, and hides an illicit affinity for death magic, the power to raise the dead. When a job goes wrong, the warrior-monks of the Sainted King capture her, and she expects to be executed.

King August offers her another choice. Entire villages on the outskirts of his country have been dying overnight, apparently at random. Lore can use her magic to learn what is killing them, or she can be burned on the pyre.

She is pulled into the king's lavish court, where nobody can be believed and very few can be trusted. Politics and religion tangle together there, and a forbidden romance adds a further risk. The mystery she has been set to solve is darker and stranger than she can guess.

This is the first book in a new epic fantasy series. It is gothic and romantic in tone, set among gilded halls and court intrigue, with a morally grey heroine from the criminal underworld at its center. Expect a dark, opulent atmosphere and a plot driven by a deadly puzzle.