QSFer Melissa Scott has a new MM fantasy/mystery out, an Astreiant novella – Point of Knives.
Nicolas Rathe and Philip Eslingen are back, drawn together from opposite sides of the law to investigate a series of murders whose impact stretches deep into Astreiant’s underworld.
Eslingen is now a professional knife working for a prominent crimelord while Rathe is an Adjunct Point, sworn to uphold the city’s laws. By rights, they should be wary foes, but instead they find themselves sharing an investigation as well as a bed as their search takes them into the heart of Point of Knives and at its center, the Court of Thirty-two Knives, the hub of Astreiant’s underworld.
A single misstep could mean disaster, a single doubt could be the end of all their hopes.
Warning: There are a couple of murders.
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Excerpt
Another darker spot in the dirt beyond the body caught his eye, and he crouched to touch it warily. “Baiart?”
Baiart brought the lantern, and Rathe wiped his fingers on his handkerchief, unsurprised at the rusty stain. It could always be Grandad’s, he thought, they wouldn’t know for sure until the alchemists arrived, but he had a feeling…
“Give me the light,” he said, and Baiart handed him the lantern. Rathe held it high, looking for more signs. Sure enough, there was a larger pool by the body, but the first spot he’d found was well separated, and there was a scuffed place in the dirt, not quite a footprint. And then he saw a second spot, and a third, leading toward the mews-gate, and he looked back at Baiart. “I’ve got a trail.”
“I’ll go with you,” Baiart said.
Rathe shook his head. “Stay here, wait for whoever the dead-house sends. I doubt it’ll go far, but…” He squinted at the sky, lightening further as sunrise approached. “I want to get as far as I can before it’s muddled. Tell Dame Lulli I’ll be back to speak with her, though.”
“Yes, sir,” Baiart said.
Rathe let himself out into the narrow mews. It was a short lane, bounded on both sides by high fences, and the ground was soft, rutted from the night-soil carts and the rag-and-bone women, but he could still pick out the blood trail. It led him out of the mews and down the side street that ran parallel to Bridge Street, toward the maze of little shops and warehouses that lined the river’s edge. That made it seem even more likely that it was someone who’d believed Grandad’s tales of piracy, and Rathe hoped there would be a simple end to the case. Grandad deserved better than this.
The light was better in the street, a good thing, since the trail was fading. Rathe lifted his lantern again, found the next mark, and then a scuffed place beyond it, as though the person had stumbled. Rathe frowned at that. It looked as though the attacker was worse hurt than he’d thought, and he quickened his step.
A few yards further on, there was a larger spot of blood, and when he looked up, there was a bloody smear on the whitewashed corner of the next building. He swore under his breath and drew his truncheon. The last thing he needed was to trap an injured murderer. But there was no help for it, no time to send for help. He opened the lantern’s slide all the way, and stepped briskly around the corner.
At the end of the little alley, a man knelt beside a heap of old clothes that quickly resolved itself into a body. His hat was tipped to hide his face, but it was obvious that he was about to go through the fallen man’s pockets.
“Hold hard,” Rathe said, but the next words died in his throat as the kneeling man turned
“Eslingen?”
“Oh. Hello, Nico.” Philip Eslingen sounded more sheepish than anything as he pushed himself to his feet. “I might have known it would be you.”
Author Bio
Melissa Scott is from Little Rock, Arkansas, and studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, where she earned her PhD in the Comparative History program. She is the author of more than thirty original science fiction and fantasy novels, most with queer themes and characters, as well as authorized tie-ins for Star Trek: DS9, Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Star Wars Rebels. She won Lambda Literary Awards for Trouble and Her Friends, Shadow Man, Point of Dreams (written with her late partner, Lisa A. Barnett), and Death By Silver, with Amy Griswold. She also won Spectrum Awards for Shadow Man, Fairs’ Point, Death By Silver, and for the short story “The Rocky Side of the Sky” (Periphery, Lethe Press) as well as the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She was also shortlisted for the Otherwise (Tiptree) Award. Her latest short story, “Sirens,” appeared in the collection Retellings of the Inland Seas, and her text-based game for Choice of Games, A Player’s Heart, came out in 2020. Her most recent solo novels, The Master of Samar and Fallen, were published in 2023.
| Author Website | https://www.melissascottwrites.com/ |
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| Author Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/queenofswordspress |
| Author Mastodon | https://wandering.shop/@blueterraplane |