The Brothers Grimm meets Knives Out in this unexpected, hilarious, and wholly original fantasy-murder-mystery.
The Lilac. The bard songs say that sheโs the worldโs most fearsome bounty hunter. That thereโs no criminal she canโt catch, no mystery she canโt 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 Kingdomsโand 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 guestsโan unsavory group of nobles, mages, and assorted creatures, each more shady than the lastโthe Lilac begins to wonder if the reward is worth the trouble.
And thatโs before the dead body is discovered.
Now, everyone is magically sealed inside the castleโand there is a murderer among them. If the Lilac wants to make it out with her reputation intact, itโs going to be up to her to figure out who the killer is.ย But everyone in the castleโeven the Lilac herselfโhas 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 Heroโs Guide series, whose first book, The Heroโs Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, was a New York Times Book Review Editorโs 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 childrenโs 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.