My Books

Gormon Hughes is 19, thin as a broom, and has - not for the first time in his life - been swept into the path of trouble.

Poor, recently heartbroken, and indebted to the sort of people who file their teeth into needle points and devour wriggling bloated spiders for fun, Hughes sets his sights on salvation.

That salvation is the Scarlet Citadel, a wealthy organization of pageant fighters, monster hunters, and secret keepers. With the aid of strange oracles, rare good fortune, and a unique power that bubbles like champagne in the core of Hughes’ being, he must join the Citadel and advance himself.

But the ladder of progression is harsh and dark. The rungs are slippery.

And falling means disaster…

Corinth City has a murder problem…

Ten years have passed since Gormon Hughes joined the Scarlet Citadel. Now a legendary agent of its power, Hughes is confronted by a much darker legend. A recent spate of killings has been tied to the old story of Spring-Heeled Jack. Approached by a grizzled officer from his home District, Hughes commits himself to solving the mystery. Does Jack really exist, or is he just a myth?

While Hughes works against the clock to untangle the clues and crack the case, his girlfriend Cate Jubilee is tasked with crossing into another world with the largest ever retinue of Scarlet Citadel fighters. In hostile territory she will face off against monsters more strange and terrible than she could ever have imagined.

Join Hughes and Cate as they battle the odds in this monster-hunting, crime-solving caper.

Three worlds. The first sleeps. The second is dying. The third wages war against them.

Gormon Hughes has elevated himself. Twenty-odd years ago he was a desperate young man, broken-hearted and in danger of being literally eaten alive by debt collectors. Ten years ago he helped untangle the mystery of the Spring-Heeled Jane murders. Now he is the President-Elect of his home country. He has a daughter. He has a multi-world-spanning conflict on his hands.

Cate Jubilee is the leader of the scarlet army. While her husband Hughes forges diplomatic alliances and tries to solve the riddle of broadcasting his unique magic, Cate drives her troops deeper and deeper into a hostile and scheming world. Her enemies are led by monstrous generals: a vampiric dragon, a cyclopean spy, and a master of necromancy.

Evelyn Hughes is twelve. She has the standard suite of twelve-year-old problems. She is trying to find out who she is, she is feeling rebellious, and every now and then she guests at the house of the woman trying to destroy her world. Also, she has a profound affinity for bugs. And there is the matter of her being the reincarnation of a serial killer. Maybe her problems are not so standard, after all…

Join Hughes, Cate, and Evelyn as the climax of their story arrives. The trilogy will end in moonlight and shadow, written in blood and flame, in danger and dread, under terms of bittersweet scarlet.