The Queen of Swords

Description

1870. Maude Stapleton, late of Golgotha, Nevada, is a respectable widow raising a daughter on her own. Few know that Maude belongs to an ancient order of assassins, the Daughters of Lilith, and is as well the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Anne Bonney, the legendary female pirate. Leaving Golgotha in search of her daughter Constance, who has been taken from her, Maude travels to Charleston, South Carolina, only to find herself caught in the middle of a secret war between the Daughters of Lilith and their ancestral enemies, the monstrous Sons of Typhon. To save Constance, whose prophetic gifts are sought by both cults, Maude must follow in the footsteps of Anne Bonney as she embarks on a perilous voyage that will ultimately lead her to a lost city of bones in the heart of Africa-and the Father of All Monsters. One of the most popular characters from The Six-Gun Tarot and The Shotgun Arcana ventures beyond Golgotha on a boldly imaginative, globe-spanning adventure of her own!

R. S. Belcher is the acclaimed author of Nightwise, The Shotgun Arcana, and The Six-Gun Tarot. He lives in Salem, Virginia.

"Belcher's enjoyable third historical fantasy employs considerable imagination to drop readers into a fully formed world of magic and mysticism, drawing on ancient cultures and rituals while serving up exciting action sequences . . . Fans of the Golgotha series will adore this, and new readers will find a rich new world to fall into as well as two very strong heroines to root for." --Publishers Weekly "Belcher takes the reader on the adventure of a lifetime . . . From the turbulent high seas to the dark heart of Africa, Belcher uses the past and present to tell a fantastical story of three formidable women whose lives are intertwined through history, fate and blood. Fans will cheer the powerful female protagonists who are indeed the queens of this world."--RT Book Reviews "Wonderful characters, snappy/snarky dialogue, and world that blends history/historical characters with mythic monsters, make for a delightful, thought-provoking, and entertaining novel. Highly Recommended."--SFF World "Belcher is in fine form with this epic adventure tale that spans generations, a story that puts its female characters front and center . . . Everything about this story snaps together like a well-made puzzle. Five Stars."--Books, Bones & Buffy