Tangle of Thornes

Eva Thorne #1

by Lorel Clayton.

Know More

When Eva’s brother is murdered, she is forced to investigate the crime herself. What she discovers brings her up against a powerful slave-trading cartel, dark gods, and worst of all her twin sister. In a city of elvish masters and matriarchal dwarves where humans have no rights, the only people on her side are an illegally-freed slave, a senile nanny, and an ex-almost-boyfriend. But even when she nearly loses her job and almost loses her head in a sword fight on the same night, she isn’t deterred. It’s when the nanny goes missing that she really starts to worry.

Femme fatale turns hard-boiled investigator in this first Eva Thorne novel. Set in a world where magic and machines can’t stand against the God of Death, humans are on the run from the god’s invasion. Highcrowne is the only refuge, but that means living in the Outskirts of an ancient city ruled by Avian mages, indifferent dwarves, and elves who’d prefer to see humans as their slaves. It’s worse for Eva’s people, Solhans, because they were the ones who summoned the Dead God into the world. No one wants her kind in Highcrowne and there are plenty who would be happy to see her brother dead. There are too many motives and not enough time to unravel the mystery because other people are dying—and Eva is fast running out of vacation time.

“A fantastical twist on mystery, brimming with action-packed adventure and a sense of clever fun.” -Elizabeth Spann Craig, Bestselling Mystery Author

A Word from the Author

This first book in the Eva Thorne series is meant to act as a humorous, standalone mystery that introduces some key characters and a strange world of magic, machinery, and classic fantasy races depicted in a whole new way. This story starts small, but everything is part of a bigger arc that grows epic by the end of the series, and if you ever re-read it (as I’ve done a few times) you can see the foreshadowing. Eva is not meant to be a likable character at this stage of the story, as she’s young, stupid, and angry for all the wrong reasons. She gets better reasons later. She does grow and change, as do her relationships. All hedging aside, on its own this is a fun action adventure, a fun ride, with the seeds of future romance planted for later in the series, and you will not regret reading it.

(Lorel Clayton, 2024)