The Brothers Grimm meets Knives Out in this unexpected, hilarious, and wholly original fantasy-murder-mystery.
The Lilac. The bard songs say that sheâs the worldâs most fearsome bounty hunter. That thereâs no criminal she canât catch, no mystery she canât solve.
None of that is true. Yet.
In reality, the Lilac is just a kid, and the bard who wrote all that is her best friend, Dulcinetta. But the Lilac has set her goals on becoming the best bounty hunter in the Thirteen Kingdomsâand when a priceless artifact goes missing from the home of famed monster hunter Baron Angbar, the Lilac and Netta are eager to apprehend the thief and make a name for themselves.
But when their investigation brings them to a dinner party at Castle Angbar, and they meet the Angbar family and their servants and guestsâan unsavory group of nobles, mages, and assorted creatures, each more shady than the lastâthe Lilac begins to wonder if the reward is worth the trouble.
And thatâs before the dead body is discovered.
Now, everyone is magically sealed inside the castleâand there is a murderer among them. If the Lilac wants to make it out with her reputation intact, itâs going to be up to her to figure out who the killer is. But everyone in the castleâeven the Lilac herselfâhas secrets to hide, and as the walls literally start to close in around them, the Lilac worries that her first job as a bounty hunter may be her last...
Christopher Healy is the author of No One Leaves the Castle as well as the Heroâs Guide series, whose first book, The Heroâs Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, was a New York Times Book Review Editorâs Choice. Before becoming a writer, he worked as an actor, an ad copywriter, a toy store display designer, a fact-checker, a dishwasher, a journalist, a costume shop clothing stitcher, a childrenâs entertainment reviewer, and a haunted house zombie. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two children, and a dog named Duncan. You can visit him online at christopherhealy.com.