Series in the First Story Universe

## Daniel Faust

The Daniel Faust series follows the adventures of professional thief, sometimes gangster, and magician Daniel Faust. Set in Las Vegas, these books set up the backbone of the First Story.

### The Long Way Down (2014)

> Nobody knows the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas like Daniel Faust, a sorcerer for hire and ex-gangster who uses black magic and bullets to solve his clients' problems. When an old man comes seeking vengeance for his murdered granddaughter, what looks like a simple job quickly spirals out of control. Soon Daniel stands in the crossfire between a murderous porn director; a corrupt cop with a quick trigger finger; and his own former employer, a racket boss who isn't entirely human. Then there's Caitlin: brilliant, beautiful, and the lethal right hand of a demon prince.
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> A man named Faust should know what happens when you rub shoulders with demons. Still Daniel can't resist being drawn to Caitlin's flame as they race to unlock the secret of the Etruscan Box, a relic that people all over town are dying -- and killing -- to get their hands on. As the bodies drop and the double-crosses pile up, Daniel will need every shred of his wits, courage and sheer ruthlessness just to survive.
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> Daniel Faust knew he was standing with one foot over the brink of hell. He's about to find out just how far he can fall.
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### Redemption Song (2014)

> Daniel Faust, Las Vegas sorcerer and career criminal, has never pulled the trigger on an innocent man. When the infernal Prince Sitri challenges him to do just that, though, he can't walk away. His lover, Caitlin, is Sitri's right hand...and if Daniel refuses the job, he'll never see her again.
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> While Daniel works to unravel Sitri's twisted game, putting his principles and his life on the line, Caitlin has problems of her own. A pack of renegade halfbloods are in town, armed to the teeth and aiming to go to war with hell itself. Their leader is a bad memory from Caitlin's past, one she thought dead and buried centuries ago, and he's got revenge on his mind.
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> As if that isn't bad enough, the fallout from Daniel's last job descends in the form of an FBI task force, aimed at putting him and everyone he cares about behind bars. The feds have a magician of their own, one who knows all of Daniel's dirty little secrets. Throw in a mythical road map to hell and the ghost of a 15th-century serial killer, and the stage is set for a deadly collision.
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> Sitri's games are never what they seem. Everything is connected. If Daniel and Caitlin can't solve the puzzle in time, the consequences will tear them apart forever.
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### The Living End (2014)

> As the FBI closes in on the Las Vegas underworld, Daniel Faust -- grifter, thief, and sorcerer -- isn't the only one feeling the heat. Half-demon racket boss Nicky Agnelli is fighting to hang onto his empire, leaving a trail of dead informants in his wake, while Daniel's ex-girlfriend Jennifer rallies her forces on the street and aims her sights at Nicky's crown.
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> Meanwhile, homeless people are vanishing by the dozens. Daniel has bigger problems to worry about, but a plea from an old friend sends him on a search for answers. What he finds is a conspiracy twenty years in the making, involving a power-hungry senator, occult experiments, murderous British mercenaries...and Lauren Carmichael, Daniel's nemesis.
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> From a gunfight in the Arizona badlands to unearthing buried secrets in a New York laboratory, the hunt is on. With Lauren's deadly plan revealed and time running out, Daniel and his crew will stop at nothing to take her down. She's got the law in her pocket and a hired army at her back. He's got black magic, bullets, and the art of the con. It's high noon in Vegas and when the dust settles, only one side will be left standing. May the best villain win.
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### A Plain-Dealing Villain (2015)

> It's hard to make a dishonest buck in Sin City, especially when a rogue FBI agent is gunning for your head. Flat broke and one step ahead of the law, Daniel Faust flees Vegas and lands in Chicago, where a risky heist promises to fill his pockets with cash.
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> There are the risks you can account for, and then there are the risks you never see coming, the ones that leave you blindsided and fighting to survive. Daniel is a stranger in a strange land, out of his element and surrounded by corrupt sorcerers, demons, and worse. Still, with a friend's soul hanging in the balance -- not to mention a pile of stolen cash -- giving up isn't an option.
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> Before he's done, Daniel will descend into the depths of Chicago's occult netherworld, competing in an underground poker tournament where the winner takes all...and with the infernal Court of Night-Blooming Flowers running the show, "winner takes all" has an entirely new meaning. The Flowers haven't forgotten Daniel's past insults, and if they get their way, he'll never leave the Windy City alive.
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### The Killing Floor Blues (2015)

> Nobody has ever escaped from the Iceberg. It's a privately-owned prison deep in the Mojave Desert, staffed by brutal guards and surrounded by desolate wasteland. Inside the walls, gangs and predators are constant threats; outside the walls, there's nothing but a sniper's bullet or a slow death in the desert heat.
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> Framed for murder and snared in a deadly curse, Daniel Faust lands behind bars with a target on his back. Worse, with Faust out of the picture, the Chicago mob is making its bid for control of Las Vegas. If he can't engineer his escape in time to stop them, none of his friends are safe. Then there's the matter of the warden's dark secret, the one that's filling up the prison morgue with body bags.
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> Faust has been caged, buried, cut off from his allies and his magic. His enemies think they've won. They're about to learn, the hard way, that this is one sorcerer who always has a trick up his sleeve.
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> Nobody has ever escaped from the Iceberg. But the Iceberg has never had a prisoner like Daniel Faust.
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### The Castle Doctrine (2016)

> Out of prison and back on the streets, Daniel Faust returns home to a city on fire. The Chicago mob is making their play for control of Las Vegas, with an army of gunmen and a lethal shapeshifter on their side, while Daniel's friend Jennifer marshals the forces of the Vegas underworld. Staying on the sidelines isn't an option, especially when a Metro detective orders him to get the war under control -- and if he can't, he'll expose Daniel's secrets to the FBI.
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> It's a bad time for ghosts of the past to come calling, but Damien Ecko is on his way with a hit list and a legion of walking corpses. Marked for death by the courts of hell, the mad necromancer plans on making sure that everyone who framed him, Daniel first and foremost, dies along with him.
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> Hunted by the living and the dead, pushed to his limits, Daniel will have to be smarter, faster, and more ruthless than he's ever been. He'll need to call upon new, dark powers, and darker allies. His enemies thought they took everything he had. They couldn't take his hunger. When this war is over, Daniel Faust will rise like a phoenix...or go down in flames.
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### Double or Nothing (2017)

> Daniel Faust – sorcerer, thief, and newly-minted Las Vegas crime boss – has debts to pay. One of those debts has just come due, an IOU to be paid in the form of a high-risk heist, and it’s a job he can’t refuse. The mark? Daniel’s arch-nemesis, a man with a Cheshire smile and the powers of a living god. The score? A sacrificial dagger buried under layers of electronic, occult, and human security, snug on the far side of a custom-built deathtrap.
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> Normally, a heist like that would be the end of Daniel’s problems. This time, it’s only the beginning.
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> Caitlin, Daniel’s lover and the right hand of a demon prince, faces her own threat. She’s adept at navigating the politics of Hell, keeping the peace with diplomatic grace and a whip, but a plan years in the making has left a ticking time bomb under her feet. When it explodes, it will send shockwaves through the infernal courts – and expose one of Caitlin’s darkest secrets. A hidden enemy has targeted Caitlin and Daniel for destruction, and aims to lure them into an impossible snare. For one of them to escape, the other must die.
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> The only way out is through a maze of demonic bounty hunters, psychic assassins, unlikely enemies and even more unlikely allies. Daniel Faust has spent his life as a trickster, defeating his enemies with the art of the con. He may have finally met his match. Las Vegas is the ultimate chessboard, and his opponent is already two moves ahead.
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### The Neon Boneyard (2018)

> Daniel Faust has clawed his way from the gutter to a penthouse suite, carving a bloody swath across the Las Vegas underworld. He's buried his enemies and more than a few friends along the way. If there's one thing a modern-day sorcerer knows for certain, though, it's that the past never stays buried forever.
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> Now he's running on ice, juggling his responsibilities as a mob boss with his dubious "gift" of a knighthood in the courts of hell, defending territory in two worlds at once. It's a bad time for unfinished business to come back and haunt him, forcing him to confront his tortured history and the family he left behind. An even worse time for his surviving foes to join forces and take deadly aim at Faust's throne.
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> Toss in a syndicate operative from a parallel world, a deranged half-demon assassin hungry for a duel, and the shadowy machinations of the King of Worms, and the stage is set for a showdown under the neon lights of Vegas. Vultures are circling, and only the magician with the quickest wits -- and the fastest trigger-finger -- will survive.
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### The Locust Job (2020)

> The first story ever told left a scar on the skin of the universe, with its characters doomed to an endless cycle of reincarnation and death. Trapped by his enemies, Daniel Faust — magician, mobster, and newly-minted knight of hell — has been cast in the role of the eternal Thief. Now the story is dead-set on writing his final chapter, the one that ends with a knife in his back.
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> The curse can’t be broken without tracking down the original Thief. The truth is buried beneath the legacy of a long-dead stage magician and a cache of occult relics from the 1940s, but Daniel and his crew aren’t the only hunters on this trail: so is a deadly new contender who blends sorcery with science, armed with a link to Daniel’s past — and a cult he thought he had destroyed long ago.
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> The doomsday clock is ticking, and more than Daniel’s own life is at stake. To save the day he’ll have to pull off the most daring heist of his criminal career, stealing a priceless treasure from a reality-bending madman, or die trying.
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### Down Among the Dead Men (2022)

> Daniel Faust’s last heist ended with a betrayal, a bullet in his heart, and a plunge from a lonely back-country bridge. Now he’s on life support, and the occult relic keeping him tethered to this world is counting down the last seconds to midnight.
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> That’s the good news. The bad news is, he just woke up in hell.
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> Marooned, lost, and hunted in an endless city of the damned, Daniel is racing against time. If he can’t make it back to his body before the clock runs out, he’ll be trapped in the netherworld forever. A host of enemies stand in his way. Some are desperate to silence him. Others, ghosts etched in blood and gun-smoke, are hungry for payback. Hell is the one place where you can never outrun your past.
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> And in the land of the living, Daniel’s family and crew gather to mount a desperate defense around his hospital bed as assassins close in from all sides. Survival will take a miracle, but this magician might have one last trick up his sleeve
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### Short Stories and Novellas

#### The White Gold Score (2016)

*The White Gold Score* is a 46,000-word novella in the Daniel Faust series, a side-story that takes place between *The Long Way Down* and *Redemption Song*.)

> When a high roller dies in his Vegas penthouse suite, that's a problem. When his ghost refuses to leave, that's a bigger problem. Daniel Faust is the solution. Called in to clean up the casino's mess, the modern-day sorcerer soon learns that the restless spirit isn't going down without a fight. To set things right, he'll have to delve someplace even seedier, even more treacherous, than the Vegas Strip: the Los Angeles music industry.
> In a snare between a scheming record producer, an embattled songstress and a lethal drug cartel, Daniel and his crew hit the streets of LA. Opportunity is knocking. There's a score to be had. And with a quarter of a million dollars on the table, this murder mystery just became a heist in the making.
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#### A Drive in the Country (2016)

Found in *Full Metal Magic*, a collection of short stories. It can also be found on Craig Schaefer's website. This short story is set between *Double or Nothing* and *The* *Neon Boneyard.*

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#### Lockdown

This short story can be found on Craig Schaefer's website. It's set between *The Neon Boneyard* and *The* *Locust Job,* though the timeline doesn't completely fit*.*

> A slice of life story set during the Covid lockdown.
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#### Hex the Moon

This short story can be found on Craig Schaefer's website. It's set between *The Neon Boneyard* and *The* *Locust Job.*

> A story from the casefiles of Daniel Faust. The secret ones. The ones no one wants to talk about. Because they’re embarrassing.
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## Harmony Black

Harmony Black is first introduced in *The Living End*. An FBI agent who is determined to pursue justice and truth, Harmony and Faust quickly find themselves at odds. In the Harmony Black series we see her join Vigilant Lock, a secret organization within the FBI dedicated to hunting and eliminating all potential supernatural threats.

### Harmony Black (2016)

> Harmony Black is much more than your average FBI special agent. In addition to being a practicing witch, she’s also an operative for Vigilant Lock, an off-the-books program created to battle occult threats—by any means necessary. Despite her dedication to fighting the monsters threatening society, Harmony has become deeply conflicted about her job. Her last investigation resulted in a pile of dead bodies, and she suspects the wrong people are being punished for it.
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> While on a much-needed vacation, Harmony gets pulled back into action. This time, though, she’s gone from solo work to being part of a team. Their target: the Bogeyman, a vicious and elusive figure…and the creature that destroyed Harmony’s childhood.
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> Surrounded by quirky, fascinating characters as dedicated to one another as they are to their new partner, Harmony must learn to trust her team—and a new romantic interest—on a dangerous and deadly mission that conjures up memories she’d much rather forget.
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### Red Knight Falling (2016)

> They’d always heard the Red Knight was an urban legend: in 1954, three years before Sputnik launched, a mysterious satellite was sighted circling Earth, though no power on the planet had such technology.
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> But the Red Knight is real, and what’s more, it’s inextricably linked to a supernatural force no one yet understands. Like a moth to a flame, this dark presence collides annually with the airborne satellite. Except this year the Red Knight is on course to crash-land…in Oregon.
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> Vigilant Lock sets out to find the crash site and secure the remnants before the mysterious power is drawn to Earth. But they soon discover the mission is far from straightforward—and they aren’t the only ones tracking the Red Knight. To stop a deadly occult threat, Harmony and her team must use all their resources: technology and sorcery, science and magic. Fortunately, Harmony has only begun to discover her growing power.
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### Glass Predator (2017)

> A high-profile bank robbery reveals thieves with the same unnatural strength and turquoise eyes as Jessie, who was touched by the King of Wolves. Jessie becomes unstable, struggling with her inner Beast, and Harmony’s magic is threatened by unexpected interference. Even worse, the women uncover a secret their own handler may kill to protect, forcing Vigilant Lock to go off the grid.
> From the smoky back rooms of Washington, DC, inhabited by the crooked elite, to the astonishing high-rises of corrupt upper-crust Manhattan, Harmony and Jessie fight to uncover and halt a mass conspiracy threatening US soil in a race against time—and hell.
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### Cold Spectrum (2017)

> Criminologist Harmony Black is a witch with a loaded Glock. Her partner, Jessie Temple, is packing fierce lupine heat. Together, they’re part of Vigilant Lock, an elite FBI black ops group dedicated to defeating criminals with supernatural connections. But when they uncover a demonic conspiracy in the highest ranks of the government, it appears that everything Harmony and her friends have worked for, fought for, and risked their lives for might be a lie.
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> Framed for a casino massacre, Harmony and Jessie are on the run—in the real world and in their own. From the seedy casinos of Atlantic City to the steamy bayous of Louisiana and the imposing facades of Washington, DC, there’s not a soul on earth they can trust.
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> The only way they can clear their names is to take down the conspiracy from within and uncover the truth behind a secret that both the government and the powers of hell want to keep buried.
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### Right to the Kill (2019)

> When two operatives go dark in Tampa, chasing the trail of an oligarch with ties to the demonic underworld, Vigilant Lock — the nation’s first and last line of defense against occult attack — sends their best to the rescue: Harmony Black, a troubled investigator and an elemental witch with a keen but tangled mind; and her partner Jessie Temple, the daughter of a supernatural slasher and the inheritor of her father’s powers.
> The trail of clues leads them to the doorstep of Judah Cranston, a wealthy scientist with dark secrets and a darker agenda. Toss in an alluring marine biologist with eyes for Harmony, and a pair of demon-blooded troubleshooters on a hunt of their own, and Tampa Bay is heating up fast. As the mission takes Harmony and Jessie from the sun-drenched Florida coast to a gloomy New England fishing town steeped in forgotten history, they find themselves up against a threat far greater — and more otherworldly — than they ever expected.
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### Black Tie Required (2020)

> The annual TechTopia conference draws Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, big thinkers, startup investors — and the Basilisk, a former German Military Intelligence officer turned freelance assassin. He’s in town to make a killing, and his target could be any of a thousand potential victims. To protect their source of information, direct action is off the table: Harmony and her team have to identify the target and stage a rescue without the Basilisk — or his mistress, the sadistic demoness Nadine — ever learning that they were involved.
> Stranger things are brewing under the neon and glitz. The elite of the criminal underworld are flocking to the city like flies to a rotting corpse, rumors of a secret auction are swirling, and the assassin’s target has ties to Talon Worldwide — a corporation with a foothold on two parallel Earths. Soon enough, Harmony discovers there’s far more at stake than a single life. The consequences of this mission aren’t just global: they’re interdimensional.
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### Never Send Roses (2023)

> The House of Dead Roses offers murder, espionage, and mayhem to the highest bidder. Agent Harmony Black's war against the infernal cult -- and their seductive, sadistic mistress, the demoness Nadine -- last found her facing off against Nadine's top assassin under the glittering lights of Las Vegas, a battle that left her physically and psychically scarred. Harmony has no time to heal. Now she's in the Windy City with a new enemy in her the Roses' "mastermind," a poker-champion prodigy with a mind like a steel trap and a plan for a heist that will fill Nadine's war-chest with an infusion of dirty money. He's putting together a crew for the job and Harmony, along with her best friend and partner Jessie Temple, is going undercover. What seems like a simple takedown soon proves more complicated -- and more deadly -- than anyone bargained for. The target of the heist, a government defense contractor, is keeping secrets of their own. The prize at stake has global consequences. And as Harmony's occult powers continue to mutate, tainted and twisted by Nadine's curse, she's going to have to push herself harder, go further, and delve deeper into her own darkness than she ever has before. Harmony and Nadine are on a collision course. This time, only one of them is going to walk away.
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### Short Stories and Novellas

#### Sixty-Six Seconds (2017)

Found in *Urban Enemies*, a collection of short stories. This short story is set between *Cold Spectrum* and *Right to the Kill.*

> Fontaine, a demonic bounty hunter and member of the Chain Men accepts a bounty to track down a member of the Redemption Choir
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## The Revanche Cycle

### Winter's Reach (2014)

> Pope Benignus is dying, and the man who takes his throne will hold the reins of an empire. Conspiracies swirl like shadows around Livia, the pope's daughter, who refuses to be anyone's pawn: chasing the whispers of a deadly coup, she vows to expose the truth and save her church from disaster. Livia has secrets of her own, though, and one wrong move could cost her life and her soul.
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> Felix is the scion of a dying merchant house, a man with just one chance to save his family and the woman he loves. His last hope lies in the snowbound hell of Winter's Reach, a former prison colony turned "free city" under a brutal tyrant's reign.
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> Livia and Felix have never crossed paths, but they've both been snared in a far greater web than they can imagine. They -- along with a pair of veteran bounty hunters, an exiled politician, and a sadistic coven of witches -- are cogs in one man's apocalyptic plan for revenge. A plan which, if it succeeds, will leave an entire nation in flames.
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### The Instruments of Control (2015)

> Livia Serafini must die. To the Church she is a heretic, tried in absentia and sentenced to burn. To her brother Carlo, she stands as a threat to his corrupt rule and a symbol of resistance. To her new "allies" in the east, she is a pawn to be played and sacrificed as they see fit. They don't hear the whispers that follow her in the streets: whispers of hope, and the name of a long-dead saint. When Livia rises up to fight, she will not rise alone.
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> Across the ocean, Felix struggles for control of his family's fate against the crime lord Basilio Grimaldi. Basilio is wealthy, ruthless, and the master of a hundred killers. All Felix has are his wits and his courage. It won't be enough. To break free, and to save the lives of everyone he loves, he'll have to face the darkness that followed him home from Winter's Reach.
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> And as the Owl's horrific vengeance unfolds, her coven teeters on the brink of civil war. All the dominoes are in place now, lined up from the frozen north to the swamps and ruins of a dead empire, and set to tumble at one man's command. When they do, a world will fall with them.
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### Terms of Surrender (2015)

> Felix Rossini is a man with a thousand enemies. Framed for murder, hunted by Mirenze's protectors as well as the criminal underworld, he struggles to survive and fight back against the conspiracy that has marked him for death. A conspiracy of another kind is brewing across the ocean, as the corrupt aristocracy draws Livia Serafini’s oldest friends into a plot to destroy her. If she can’t find a way to overcome the occult infection spreading through her veins, they may not have to.
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> And in the shadows, the Owl prepares to wage bloody war against the most dangerous foe of all -- her own coven -- as she leads her disciples in a quest to recover a deadly relic. It's a showdown that will end where it all began: in the frozen hell of Winter's Reach, under a rain of fire.
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> From a rebel uprising in the west, to a broken crusade in the east, the dominoes fall one by one. Where they land will determine the fate of an empire.
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### Queen of the Night (2016)

> It all ends here.
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> It ends as Livia Serafini returns to her homeland with an army at her back, an exiled refugee turned ruthless conqueror, bringing war and witchcraft to any who dare stand in her way. It ends as Renata Nicchi and her ragged band of hunters and outlaws infiltrate a city under siege, making a last, desperate bid to save her lover from the jaws of the criminal underworld and be reunited at last.
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> And as the Owl and her coven work to unravel the mystery of Wisdom's Grave, a doom from the past threatens to consume them all. It ends here, in the final chapter of the Revanche Cycle, under the spreading shadow of darkness. In a land where poison is king, only one can become the queen of the night.
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## Wisdom's Grave

The Wisdom's Grave trilogy stars Nessa Fieri and Marie Renault, reincarnations of characters familiar from The Revanche Cycle. Marie is introduced in [Harmony Black book]. Daniel Faust, Vigilant Lock, and The Coven of the Pallid Mask all play roles in the story of the Witch and her Knight.

### Sworn to the Night (2018)

> Marie Reinhart is an NYPD detective on the trail of a serial killer. When she sleeps, though, she dreams of other lives; she dreams of being a knight, in strange wars and strange worlds. On the other side of the city, Nessa Roth is a college professor trapped in a loveless marriage, an unwilling prop in a political dynasty. She's also a fledgling witch, weaving poppets and tiny spells behind closed doors.
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> When Marie's case draws her into Nessa's path, sparks fly. What comes next is more than a furtive whirlwind affair; it's the first pebbles of an avalanche. Nessa and Marie are the victims of a curse that has pursued them across countless lifetimes; a doom designed to trap them in a twisted living fairy tale, with their romance fated to end in misery and death.
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> They aren't going out without a fight. As they race to uncover the truth, forces are in motion across the country. In Las Vegas, a professional thief is sent on a deadly heist. In a Detroit back alley, witches gather under the guidance of a mysterious woman in red. Just outside New York, an abandoned zoo becomes the hunting-ground for servants of a savage and alien king. The occult underground is taking sides and forming lines of battle. Time is running out, and Nessa and Marie have one chance to save themselves, break the curse, and demand justice.
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> This time, they're writing their own ending.
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### Detonation Boulevard (2018)

> When NYPD detective Marie Reinhart met Nessa Roth, a Manhattan socialite and dabbler in the occult, sparks flew. Then came the gunfire. Nessa and Marie are the Witch and her Knight, characters from a fairy tale brought to life and trapped in an endless curse: to meet, fall in love, and be torn from each other’s arms by violent death, again and again for all eternity. Now they have one slim chance to escape their doom. It lies in Wisdom’s Grave, the resting-place of the first witch who ever lived, and the wellspring of magic.
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> To find it, they’ll have to cross over two thousand miles of hostile territory from New York to Las Vegas, pursued by the law, the criminal underworld, and a cult of demonic bounty hunters. Their enemies have political power and an army of ruthless assassins. They have a book of black magic, a Cadillac, and a gun.
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> The American heartland is about to become a war zone. And as portals to other worlds tear open, showing the way to secrets buried since the dawn of time, Nessa and Marie prepare to make their final stand.
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### Bring the Fire (2018)

> Believing her lover has been killed, Nessa — the living archetype of the wicked witch and a fairy tale brought to murderous life — flies across the Mojave Desert on a mission of vengeance. Meanwhile, Marie is stranded on a dystopian parallel Earth, forced to confront her own dark side as she comes face to face with the architect of an insidious plot. Their quest will take them from candlelit caverns to a bloody, rain-soaked gunfight in the heart of the Vegas Strip; from the ruins of an ancient occult battlefield, where unspeakable creatures prowl derelict warships, to the very gates of heaven.
> Nessa and Marie are characters from the first story ever told, trapped in an endless cycle of tragedy, death, and rebirth. But not this time. They’re hunting for their creator, for the answers and for the justice they’ve been denied. They’re hunting for their happily-ever-after, determined to rewrite their story’s ending once and for all. And God help anyone who stands in their way.
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## The Midnight Jury

Roy Mackey, a PI, and Lucy Langenkamp, an art restorer, find themselves embroiled in a conspiracy involving the Network.

### Any Minor World (2022)

> For Roy Mackey -- a recovering addict who makes his living as an unlicensed PI and occasional muscle for hire -- tracking down a dead writer's final manuscript should be a walk in the park. Too bad his client is a phony, the dead writer is a thief, and shadowy men are watching his every move. All clues lead to a canceled pulp-adventure comic, The Midnight Jury, and its mousy, reclusive author. Lucy Langenkamp is living a quiet life as an art restorer in Las Vegas; when Roy helps her escape from a crew of armed kidnappers, she's as baffled as he is.
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> Then one of her own characters, a flamethrower-wielding "human exterminator," steps out of the pages of her comic book and into the real world. He's intent on hunting her down, and he isn't alone. The pulp villains spawned from Lucy's childhood imagination are coming to life, searching for their long-lost author. Her most sinister creation, the Illustrated Duke, has a dark plan in motion.
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> This is a job for Lucy's two-fisted vigilante, the Midnight Jury. But the Jury is missing. To save the day, Lucy and Roy must descend into a noir-drenched nightmare city on a rescue mission. The walls between fiction and reality are shattered, there's wild magic in the air, and it's up to two unlikely heroes to risk it all and save the day.
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## Charlie McCabe

This series is set in the same universe, but doesn't involve any of the characters from other series. There are brief references within them. For example, in *The Insider*, a coworker of Charlie's reads a fantasy novel with a green knight on the cover. This book is also seen in the Wisdom's Grave Trilogy and is Marie Renault's favorite book. It's also written by Carolyn Saunders.

### The Loot (2019)

> She fought for her country. Now she’s fighting for her family. When Sergeant Charlie McCabe returns from fighting in Afghanistan, she hopes to leave the war behind. Instead, she comes home to a father whose gambling has put him in deep trouble with a violent loan shark. She finds work as a professional bodyguard, but to save her father, she needs to get serious cash together fast. However, her father isn’t the only one who needs saving. When Charlie’s first client—a wealthy executive with a shady past—narrowly escapes a bomb plot, Charlie’s investigation leads her into the heart of Boston’s criminal underworld. Along the way, she stumbles upon clues about a diamond heist gone wrong that’s been unsolved for decades. With the clock ticking and chaos descending, Charlie sees a solution to both problems, but it won’t be easy, and it won’t be pretty. A “normal” life may await Charlie on the other side of this mess, but part of her knows that the battle has just begun.
>
>

### The Insider (2020)

> Hard-bitten bodyguard Charlie McCabe is lucky to be alive after her recent foray into Boston’s criminal underworld. So she’s taking no chances with this next protecting Hayden Cobb, key witness in the trial against a trio of murderous cops known as the East Boston Three. If Cobb drops dead, the Three walk. After an attempt on Cobb’s life, Charlie suspects the Three have somehow put a hit on him from behind bars, and the assassin’s still at large. And when notorious loan shark Jimmy Lassiter is dragged into the mix, he retaliates the only way he knows how―by striking at the heart of her family. Now it’s personal. With her father held hostage and her client in profound danger, Charlie must act fast. Far too many lives are at stake, and though she knows she can’t protect everyone, she’s gonna try.
>
>

## Recommended Reading Order

As the books in the series are intertwined and have character crossover, it's recommended to read all of them in the following order. However, each series is capable of standing alone on it's own.

1. The Complete Revanche Cycle \*
2. The Long Way Down (Faust #1)
3. The White Gold Score (Faust #1.5)
4. Redemption Song (Faust #2)
5. The Living End (Faust #3)
6. A Plain-Dealing Villain (Faust #4)
7. Harmony Black (Harmony #1)
8. The Killing Floor Blues (Faust #5)
9. Red Knight Falling (Harmony #2)
10. The Castle Doctrine (Faust #6)
11. Glass Predator (Harmony #3)
12. Double or Nothing (Faust #7)
13. Cold Spectrum (Harmony #4)
14. The Neon Boneyard (Faust #8)
15. Sworn to the Night (WG #1)
16. Detonation Boulevard (WG #2)
17. Bring the Fire (WG #3)
18. Right to the Kill (Harmony #5)
19. Any Minor World (MJ #1)
20. The Locust Job (Faust #9)
21. Black Tie Required (Harmony #6)
22. Down Among the Dead Men (Faust #10)

\* Stands alone in its own universe, can be read any time prior to The Castle Doctrine, where Revanche characters are mentioned.

1. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22743827-the-long-way-down
2. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22470217-redemption-song
3. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22979810-the-living-end
4. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24539372-a-plain-dealing-villain
5. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26018274-the-killing-floor-blues
6. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32282989-the-castle-doctrine
7. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35424840-double-or-nothing
8. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39713816-the-neon-boneyard
9. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49779563-the-locust-job
10. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61612752-down-among-the-dead-men
11. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29345802-the-white-gold-score
12. ↑ https://craig-schaefer-v2.squarespace.com/drive
13. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32335076-full-metal-magic
14. ↑ https://craig-schaefer-v2.squarespace.com/lockdown
15. ↑ https://craig-schaefer-v2.squarespace.com/hex-the-moon
16. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26402927-harmony-black
17. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27997472-red-knight-falling
18. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32610377-glass-predator
19. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34703867-cold-spectrum
20. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52264281-right-to-the-kill
21. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53120760-black-tie-required
22. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/202138158-never-send-roses
23. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32859670-urban-enemies
24. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23512021-winter-s-reach
25. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25398200-the-instruments-of-control
26. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27829015-terms-of-surrender
27. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30765473-queen-of-the-night
28. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37806236-sworn-to-the-night
29. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41144797-detonation-boulevard
30. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42738876-bring-the-fire
31. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60894529-any-minor-world
32. ↑ The Insider pg 30
33. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43193208-the-loot
34. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50184731-the-insider
35. ↑ https://craig-schaefer-v2.squarespace.com/reading-order