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About the Author

Elizabeth Hand is the author of more than fourteen cross-genre novels and collections of short fiction. Her work has received the Shirley Jackson Award (three times), the World Fantasy Award (four times), and the Nebula Award (twice), as well as the James M. Tiptree Jr. and Mythopoeic Society Awards. She’s a longtime critic and contributor of essays for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Salon, Boston Review, and the Village Voice, among many others. She divides her time between the Maine coast and North London.

…and her next novel,
The Book of Lamps and Banners

Acclaimed crime writer Elizabeth Hand returns to her “fiercely frightening yet hauntingly beautiful” (Tess Gerritsen) cult-favorite series: Photographer Cass Neary is hard up for cash and in more danger than she realizes on the hunt for a legendary manuscript said to contain ancient esoteric knowledge—even an otherworldly power.

Following is an excerpt from the novel’s opening pages.

Teaser Chapter

Much of the Tube was still shut down. Another car had plowed through a Go Happy London! tour group the day before, this time near Tower Bridge. I’d taken the night train from Penzance, nodding off between shots of Jack Daniel’s before trying to resurrect my amphetamine jag with one of the Vyvanse I’d stolen a few days earlier. I overheard news of the attack from two train staff who stood beside the door as we pulled into Paddington.

“They’ll be coming after us next.” One of the uniformed women shook her head, her face pale from exhaustion.

Her colleague nodded. “That’s what I been telling my kids. Get out while you can.”

Inside the station, I pushed my way through crowds of people who stared hypnotized at their mobiles, or gazed in dismay at the images flashing across TV news feeds. More EU trauma, domestic terrorists here and in the U.S., images of rural food shortages and disintegrating governments on both sides of the Atlantic. The few people who took notice of me veered away.