Casperian Books Blog

Casperian Books is pleased to announce the release of the newest installment in the Administration Series, Corpora Delicti by Manna Francis.

On the surface, stability has returned to Europe. According to all the official metrics released to news feeds, the Administration and the corporations are stronger and more united than ever. Only in the most secret of government surveillance departments and corporate security divisions would anyone suggest otherwise.

On the surface, Senior Para-investigator Toreth’s year is ending badly. His boss hates him, his junior is looking for a way out, and his new case seems like a dud. Even the upcoming holidays bring more unwelcome news. But the new year starts him down a trail that will lead him from an unpromising beginning, via an unappetizing corpse, right into the financial heart of the Administration and the highest-stakes investigation of his career.

On the surface, corporate director Keir Warrick’s life is on the up. His virtual reality corporation SimTech has weathered the storm of the revolt, and new opportunities are appearing. Away from work, though, more clouds are gathering. What should be good family news brings concerns for the future. With so many secrets to keep, where can he turn to finally guarantee the safety of his family and corporation? And what will the consequences of his choices be for his relationship with Toreth?

This is the ninth book in the Administration series, and follows the intertwined private and professional lives of somewhat justifiably paranoid senior para-investigator Val Toreth and overly inquisitive corporate director Keir Warrick.

Click here to read the first chapter of Corpora Delicti.

Casperian Books is pleased to announce the release of Lynne Hinkey’s new novel, The Un-familiar: A Tale of Cats and Gods.

Coincidence leads to talk and talk to speculation and speculation to rumor and rumor to belief. And belief brings the supernatural to life. There’s a lot of talk about what’s behind the bizarre weather on the island of Puerto Rico…

Two years ago, people breathed a sigh of relief when Detective Eddie Corredor exposed the crooked and costumed mayor of Rincón as the real monster that had been terrorizing the island with his shady business activities. But now, the natural disasters occurring in a most unnatural manner have people whispering about a supernatural beast again. Is the chupacabra real or rumor?

Señora Milagros, familiar to the dog-god of Mercy, and a handful of other people know the truth, but even they have some surprises in store as a host of new beliefs bring more gods to the island. Can Señora Milagros sort them all out before the recent arrivals destroy the newly returned dog? If not, it’s not only her retirement at stake, it’s the future of mankind.

Click here to read the first chapter of The Un-familiar.

We’re pleased to announce the release of Lavinia Ludlow’s new novel, Single Stroke Seven.

In an attention-deficit society still crippled by the aftereffects of the recession, Lilith, a percussive virtuoso–or maybe just a garage band drummer–fights to break into the indie rock scene.

With a band of misguided lost boys, an ego-slaughtering day job at a bottling plant, and the Silicon Valley’s inflated cost of living to contend with, Lilith flounders at keeping herself and her friends from dissolving into obsolescence and numbing consumerism.

A sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll tale too impoverished to afford any sex, drugs, or rock ‘n’ roll, Single Stroke Seven sheds light on the independent artists of a shipwrecked generation coming of age in perilous economic conditions.

The ebook version of Manna Francis’ Blood & Circuses is getting released tomorrow, January 15th.

Casperian Books is pleased to announce the release of the eighth book in the Administration Series, Blood & Circuses by Manna Francis.

It’s set to be a busy autumn in New London and beyond. With the ripples of the revolt still running through the European Administration, Val Toreth is slowly settling into the new flat he shares with Keir Warrick. But on orders from the very highest levels of the Administration, Toreth finds himself leaving his regular beat far behind and heading over the Atlantic to Washington D.C. Without his usual team or his authority as a Para-investigator to back him up, Toreth is caught up in a world of politics, diplomacy, and religion far outside his experience. Worst of all, he’s stuck with an unexpected and very unwanted companion on his trip. Can he keep his cool and win through when international reputations are on the line?

Back in New London, Investigator Barret-Connor is called on to deal with a case that lies outside the traditional areas of interest of the Investigation and Interrogation Division–the unexpectedly dangerous world of Europe’s music corporations. With dark secrets hidden behind the PR-groomed public façade, both his professional skills and conscience will be tested.

The eighth book in the Administration series contains the novellas Innocent Blood and For Your Entertainment, and continues the lives of now partially domesticated Para-investigator Val Toreth and somewhat harried corporate director Keir Warrick.

Click here to read the first chapter of Blood & Circuses.

Casperian Books is pleased to announce the release of Lynne Hinkey’s new novel, Ye Gods! A Tale of Dogs and Demons.

Author Jack Halliman, accompanied by his loyal dog and first mate, Hanna, sails to Puerto Rico looking for a cure for his writer’s block. Instead, he finds a dead body.

With chickens, dogs, and livestock dropping like flies, the mayor has an answer: the legendary chupacabra is back. The problem is, no one on the island can agree on what, exactly, the chupacabra is. Legendary beast, vampire, or alien? As the conniving mayor, a dogged detective, a voodoo-practicing fourteen-year-old, and the local “witch” drag him deeper into the investigation, Jack has to separate reality from mythology.

But on an island where UFO sightings, conspiracy theories, and superstition abound, the lines between men and monsters, monsters and gods, and in this case, between gods and a dog, are thin and blurry.

Click here to read he first chapter of Ye Gods! A Tale of Dogs and Demons.

Casperian Books is pleased to announce the release of Dale Neal’s novel, The Half-Life of Home.

Standing your ground is hard when you can’t trust what’s underfoot. Sorting what’s true and what’s only wished is even harder in a place like Beaverdam, where stories sprout faster than grass on a new grave.

Beaverdam’s children heard tell of the Witch Woman who lived in a ruined cabin, who would cuss you or worse if you dared knock on her door. They were warned of the Snakebit Girl, how the rattler’s fangs struck her pudgy hand reaching into the nest for the hen’s eggs. Rather than tell a soul of her plight, she swelled with poisoned pride, and for her silence she was buried in the sloping graveyard. They knew of the Failed Farmer who lost all in the last depression of the nineteenth century. He sold off his plow horse, but still found necessity for the useless halter: his body was found hanging from a rafter in his empty barn.

But the oldest story was of a curse that lay on the land itself. The first whites who crossed the gap encountered no Indians, but the occasional arrowhead could be unearthed in the black fields by the creek, once dammed by the creatures who lent the cove its name. Besides those napped flints, those first hunters had left behind a legend…

Click here to read the first chapter of The Half-Life of Home.