Eva Thorne

Before Eva Thorne can accept her destiny, she must learn to accept herself. Eva leaves her family behind for boarding school (that's a good thing when your family includes necromancers and crime lords), but the foreign city of Gernwold has its own dangers. An intruder, a teacher injured, a stolen necklace left in her room... Either someone is trying to frame her, or they know what Eva really is. In this prequel novella to the Eva Thorne series, enjoy mystery and magic melded with technology, as you explore the Three Kingdoms and meet all the friends who will one day help Eva become the famous (or notorious) detective we know and love her to be.

When Eva's brother is murdered, she is forced to investigate the crime herself. What she discovers brings her up against a powerful slave-trading cartel, dark gods, and worst of all her twin sister. In a city of elvish masters and matriarchal dwarves where humans have no rights, the only people on her side are an illegally-freed slave, a senile nanny, and an ex-almost-boyfriend. But even when she nearly loses her job and almost loses her head in a sword fight on the same night, she isn't deterred. It's when the nanny goes missing that she really starts to worry. Femme fatale turns hard-boiled investigator in this first Eva Thorne novel. Set in a world where magic and machines can't stand against the God of Death, humans are on the run from the god's invasion. Highcrowne is the only refuge, but that means living in the Outskirts of an ancient city ruled by Avian mages, indifferent dwarves, and elves who'd prefer to see humans as their slaves. It's worst for Eva's people, Solhans, because they were the ones who summoned the Dead God into the world. No one wants her kind in Highcrowne and there are plenty who would be happy to see her brother dead. There are too many motives and not enough time to unravel the mystery because other people are dying-and Eva is fast running out of vacation time.

The first real case femme fatale turned private eye, Eva Thorne, has had in months may be more than she can handle. King Rutgard has been kidnapped, only he's not entirely alive, which makes finding him difficult. What's more, dwarf men are joining the suffragist movement in droves to win freedom from the matriarchy, and there's a werewolf terrorist in town causing chaos. Eva needs a case like this to make her reputation, but she has problems of her own. Dark magic is rising in her, the Thorne legacy, and she can't control it. She has to find a way or risk imprisonment by the jackbooted elf soldiers who are cracking down on illegal necromancy and worship of the Dead God. Worse, the God of Death wants her soul, as does her twin sister, so Eva denies her magic and hides from her family. But some things are impossible to hide from, like the tax collector … and love.

Eva Thorne thought facing a werewolf, betrayal, and the army of Death was bad. She learns there are all new kinds of evil-and more enemies, as well as allies, than she ever imagined. All of them have an agenda, and all of them want the one thing she needs to defeat the Dead God and save her world from annihilation. Can she claim the First Soul before they do? The bad guys all want her dead. Fortunately, some want the First Soul more, and they need her to get it. They hope it will make them a god. She wants it for her own reasons. It summoned the God of Death, and it can send Him back to the Void before His armies 'cleanse' everything she's ever known from existence. The last strongholds of humanity have fallen. Only the Three Kingdoms of Avian, Dwarf and Elf still stand. Eva is running out of time, because even that alliance is crumbling, and the Elf King, Fharen, is hatching a desperate plan of his own to win the war, one that sacrifices everyone Eva cares about. Eva doesn't want to be the femme fatale or Death's bride, and she may be the worst pet detective ever, but surely, she can find a missing relic? The First Soul is evil, and like attracts like. Gods and monsters have sought it for centuries. She has one advantage — no one does evil quite like a Thorne.

Her destiny is to face the god of death, but her choice will decide everyone's fate. Eva Thorne, the relentless femme fatale turned private eye, has fought werewolves, vampires and necromancers, but her greatest test lies ahead. Hunted by the lich queen who wants to sacrifice her soul to end the world, Eva seeks answers. Is she the key to defeating the Dead God? The lives of everyone she has ever cared about are at stake, and she cannot afford to shy from gazing into the dark heart of the Thorne legacy. What she finds is an unexpected enemy. Power, temptation, and secrets whispered in dark places await her, and it would be far easier to rule over the souls of the living and the dead rather than save them. Can she avoid her fate, or is she doomed to become that which she hates the most? In this finale to the Eva Thorne Steampunk Series, war rages across the Kingdoms. The civil war orchestrated by necromancers in service of the Dead God will tear the last refuge of humanity apart, sending everyone to dwell in the Lands of the Dead, unless Eva can stop it. When her people summoned the Dead God into the world, she was the sacrifice meant to seal the bargain. She's avoided that fate for over twenty years, but her enemies have hunted her to the end of the world. Now, there is no choice but to stand and fight. Only, she no longer knows who the real enemy is.

One thing you can be sure of is that Eva Thorne will be at the center of it all. Eva doesn't want to be the lead candidate for the Human Crownespecially since she's Solhan and not human at all, and certainly not after the elf interim council declares democracy a treasonous activity punishable by death. Only thing no one counted on was a new player on the board, or rather a very, very old one. People are turning into puppets under the control of an ancient bodysnatching plant, but someone is pulling the puppeteer's strings, and as usual, nothing is what it seems. Can Eva stop the plant creature from taking over the world? Or should she let it win, just to avoid a fate worse than death--being elected.Eva has become the clich, a hard drinking, hard nosed private detective, bitter and uncaring. Or so she thinks. A high-profile murder throws Highcrowne into chaos, and the man she's falling in love with, despite her best efforts to avoid it, is the prime suspect. She sets out to prove his innocence and uncovers plots within plots, and dangers far greater than the world's deadliest assassin or even the bodysnatching plant alien taking over the world. Old lovers and old gods come back to haunt her, and in the end, she learns sometimes winning means losing.