"From bestselling author Sonya Bateman comes the most unputdownable psychological thriller of the year.
Five families. Perfect from the outside. Broken on the inside.
Joslyn has it all. Gorgeous husband, adorable blue-eyed, blonde twins. When he greets her with a pinch under the ribs, she knows she can expect worse later.
Crystal left her life as an exotic dancer behind when she married the man who owned the club. She pays the price every time another man looks at her.
Lexi’s husband is a great father, her three kids think he’s the best dad in the world. He’s always sorry, afterwards. There are always flowers.
Maureen married young when she got pregnant. He could never stand the baby crying.
Shara’s husband is a surgeon, a pillar of the community. But at home he’s a monster.
Now all their husbands are dead.
They always wanted them out of their lives. But someone got there first."
"FROM BESTSELLING AUTHOR SONYA BATEMAN COMES AN UNPUTDOWNABLE PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER.
It’s been a real journey, but I finally have a normal life. A nice life. A wonderful husband and a beautiful daughter. My sixteen-year-old soccer-loving girl is everything.
But now he wants to take it all away. I won’t let him.
It’s been twenty years, but this morning, I saw him again. Watching me. Taunting me.
I was the girl who escaped. I was sixteen when he dragged me into the woods. I remember his harsh breathing and heavy footsteps, his weight falling on me. The broken branch I jammed into his throat.
Twenty years ago he tried to kill me. I got away, but now he’s come back for my daughter."
"I thought my husband killed my daughter.
He’s innocent.
I thought my father died of a stroke.
He was murdered.
I thought my sister was alive and living in Florida.
She’s been dead for ten years.
I thought my foster daughter was safe in my home.
She’s not.
Everything I thought I knew is a lie.
But I have to focus on the future, on the young girl I’m fostering. I find her in my back yard in the middle of the night — she’s tiny, lost and terrified.
Someone left her here.
It’s all connected. The lies are piling up. I don’t know where this girl came from. She won’t tell me anything. Not even her name.
I have no idea who I’ve brought into my home . . ."
"'My past came with sharp teeth, and I didn't enjoy letting it bite me.'
Gideon Black has just returned from a grueling visit to the Fae realm with a stronger grip on his abilities, both as a half-Fae and the DeathSpeaker. But none of that prepared him to be kidnapped and dragged into a fight against a god.
When the Duchenes's master, an ancient and powerful Other who's taken the name of the voodoo god Papa Legba, summons the family for attempting to defy him, Denei Duchene invokes a promise Gideon made long before he knew that promises could kill the Fae. Now he must travel to New Orleans with the secretive siblings and free them from their bonds—or die trying.
But Legba isn't the only danger lurking in the Louisiana swamps. Milus Dei, the cult dedicated to wiping out the Others, has been recruiting a new breed of hunter. The most dangerous, lethal poachers they can find, heavily financed and retrained to target and capture all types of non-humans.
And the group currently hunting the bayou is all too familiar to Gideon."
"'The dead can't lie. At least, not to me.'
With the dangerous Milus Dei cult collapsed, Gideon Black is trying to get used to his new life as a half-Fae, and the DeathSpeaker—a legendary Other with the ability to compel the dead to speak. But when freshly murdered bodies turn up in New York with ankh-and-sword tattoos identifying them as cult members, Gideon realizes the battle is far from over.
While dealing with a singing dead man and a powerful Seelie noble out for revenge, Gideon discovers that the remaining Milus Dei survivors have skipped town. Their new target: his werewolf friend Sadie's estranged pack in the Appalachian Mountains.
Sadie's younger sister has been abducted, and Gideon and his newfound brother Taeral offer to help get her back. But the rescue mission soon turns deadly as they uncover the cult's true target—and find that Milus Dei is not only far bigger than the New York branch, but also developing a biological weapon to turn their soldiers into unstoppable killing machines, capable of taking down any Other.
And Sadie's blood holds the key to perfecting that weapon."
"'The dead must answer to you, and no one else. Remember that, Gideon.'
He may be the DeathSpeaker, but Gideon Black has no idea what he's doing. The job didn't come with an instruction manual. That's why his half-brother Taeral plans to bring him across the Veil to the Fae realm of Arcadia, to consult with an ancient Fae who knew the previous DeathSpeaker personally.
Those plans are violently interrupted when the royal Unseelie Guard invade their home, dragging Taeral and their father, Daoin, to Arcadia ahead of schedule. And Gideon will do anything to get them back.
But the concrete jungles of Manhattan are nothing compared to the threats waiting in Arcadia. Facing deadly wildlife, even deadlier enemies, and magic he never imagined possible, Gideon must learn quickly to wield his power as both a Fae and the DeathSpeaker—before the vengeful Unseelie Queen can exact a cost higher than death from his family, and everyone he holds dear."
"Life was a whole lot easier when the dead stayed dead.
I thought I was human. Apparently, I was wrong.
I didn't even know there were non-humans. Others, they're called. Fairies, vampires, even the bogeyman—they're all real. At least, that's what the werewolf told me when I saved her from the cops.
Did I mention that I saved a werewolf? And those weren't just cops trying to kill her. They're a deadly cult with the sole purpose of capturing and torturing Others . . . especially me. Because it turns out I'm not just any Other. I can talk to the dead—and this cult has questions only I can answer. Answers they want to use to wipe out every non-human on the planet.
My name is Gideon Black, and I'm not human. I am the DeathSpeaker.
And I am so screwed."
