Novels

In 1831 London, Pablo Mansong assists an anatomist, preparing cadavers for dissection. When a young girl’s corpse is brought in by body snatchers, she sits up on the slab and claims to be Princess Victoria, heir to the throne. She is in the body with the street beggar Charlotte Hill as a plot to keep Charlotte/Victoria under his thumb of her mother and her ambitious advisor John Conroy. There are dark forces, ancient wizards with agendas, demons, a talking bust of the poet Homer, resurrection men, sentient killer rats, and music that can drive people mad, all of which challenge Pablo as he tries to set things right.

“A dark mélange of fantasy, horror, and history, The Cadaver Princess is novel that hooked me on the first page. Like Dickens crossed with Poe, there isn’t anything else quite like it.” — Alan Steele, author of the Coyote and Captain Future books.

When the graverobbers of 1831 London deliver the very fresh corpse of a 12-year-old girl to the anatomist, and she promptly sits up to complain, it is clear that magic is involved. And when the unusually docile Princess Victoria does not recoil as usual from Sir John’s fondling—and he exclaims, “It worked!”—it is equally clear that vile plots are afoot. The ensuing tale is engrossing and satisfying. Recommended!  — Tom Easton, coauthor, with Frank Wu, of ESPionage: Regime Change and, with Torion Oey, of Boondoggle.