LONDON, 1625. A young gentleman lies murdered in a Coldharbour alley. Before his death, he uncovered secrets that could threaten the mortal world above and the faerie world below. Now, to find the murderer and protect both realms, Sir Michael Deven will need the help of a man with reason to hate the fae of the Onyx Court — the victim’s own brother.

Received from the publishers in ebook format via the Librarything Early Reviewers July 2013 Batch.

Also known in some parts as "Onyx Court #1.5" this is a short novella residing between two books, and set directly after the book "Midnight Never Come". However, being an "inbetweener" book is not a bad thing (for those used to Fae worlds).

Sitting between the two worlds Sir Michael is has been grooming his successor for the fairy world, only to find him lying dead at the beginning of this story. Michael, his influence waning in the Human Court, needs to find out who killed whom and why before it's all to late.

As a novella, in depth characterisations and detailed motives are not for this book. However, it's a good introduction to the series, and I will be keeping an eye out for other books in this series!

( )

I wish I had read this book in its proper place, chronologically, between Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie. Although I did enjoy it, I probably would have rated it higher. In my opinion, there’s a lot in this book that only serves to confuse if you haven’t read Book One. Still a very enjoyable book! ( )

This is another obligation book – another long–neglected LibraryThing Early Reviewer book – which was for some reason a difficult slog. It's not very long – but it took me months to get through it, reading a few pages, "forgetting" about it, going back to it, lather–rinse–repeat. It's weird. The title is great. The description is great. The setting is great. The writing is fine. It's fifty–nine pages. (Good grief, it's taken me this flipping long to read fifty–nine pages?! Inconceivable.)

But it fought me every step of the way. ( )

This is another obligation book – another long–neglected LibraryThing Early Reviewer book – which was for some reason a difficult slog. It's not very long – but it took me months to get through it, reading a few pages, "forgetting" about it, going back to it, lather–rinse–repeat. It's weird. The title is great. The description is great. The setting is great. It's fifty–nine pages. (Good grief, it's taken me this flipping long to read fifty–nine pages?! Inconceivable.) It fought me every step of the way. ( )

I received this ebook as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers but just recently managed to find time to actually read it. The book is set in the 17th century London and is part murder mystery, part fantasy as the Faerie court is hidden below London and has an impact on the mortal world, especially as the Faerie Queen of the Onyx Court, Lune, has fallen in love with a mortal and allows him to assist her rule. Despite having a much longer life due to his ties to the Fae, her mortal lover, Sir Michael Deven, realizes that he will not live forever and suggests that they create a titled position that can be passed over to another mortal in time. She agrees and they set about searching for a possible new Prince of the Stone and Henry Ware seems to be a good fit until he ends up murdered. Deven and the victim's younger brother band together to discover the identity of the killer.

The premise of the book is interesting and I found the world of the Fae quite fascinating, but I'm not super familiar with British history during this time period and the language and political history of the times was a bit thick to wade through. I didn't find it a fast read or a hard-to-put-down book, despite it being short. For those who enjoy historical alternate history with a supernatural slant, it would probably be a very enjoyable book. ( )