The plague came without warning. Nothing could stop its progress: not medicines, not prayer. The first sign of the disease is black spots at the base of the fingers; an agonising death quickly follows. But this is no ordinary disease ...Caitlin Shepherd, a lowly GP, is allowed to cross the veil into the mystical Celtic Otherworld in search of a cure; her search takes her on a quest to the end of a land of dreams and nightmares to petition the gods. Caitlin is humanity's last hope, but she carries a terrible burden: a consciousness shattered into five distinct personalities ...and one of them may not be human. THE QUEEN OF SINISTER is the latest instalment in Mark Chadbourn's riveting 'Dark Age' sequence: a masterful blend of Celtic myth and Arthurian legend in a modern setting.
From Publishers WeeklyBritish Fantasy Award–winner Chadbourn continues (from 2010's The Devil in Green) his jumbled tale of magic returning to postapocalyptic modern England. A terrible plague forces Caitlin Shepherd, a suburban doctor reeling from having to bury her husband and son, to seek a cure in the Celtic Otherworld. Chased through a changed English countryside by a sentient wave of despair, she accumulates companions among whom she must sort out friend from foe. Chadbourn fills the twisty narrative with history, myth, fairies, ghosts, unusual undead, and links to his earlier Age of Misrule works. Notes of optimism and enthusiasm around recreating human civilization are tempered by the realization of how much suffering this new world order would entail, and further revelations about the Fall portend more misery to come in the concluding volume. (June)
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Mark Chadbourn studied Economic History at Leeds before becoming a national newspaper journalist. He is the award-winning author of several novels, including The Age of Misrule trilogy.