Jennifer Jackson – Literary Agent

Jacaranda by Cherie Priest

“Something monstrous is lurking the halls of the Jacaranda Hotel. Guests check in but don’t check out, and whoever is committing these horrific murders is only growing more brazen. As a major hurricane approaches, a motley assortment of guests hunker down inside the Jacaranda, hoping to outlast both the storm and the murders. Can the curious team of a nun, a gun-toting priest, and a Texas Ranger save their fellow guests from threats both inside and out?

While other novels in Priest’s Clockwork Century series have dabbled in supernatural elements, Jacaranda is the first to go full bore and embrace the supernatural. It leaves behind much of the steampunk and pseudoscientific trappings that characterize the series, offering a cursed hotel and perils less tangible than sap-poisoned rotters and Civil War profiteers.

But a supernatural mystery doesn’t work unless we care about who might die, so Priest enlists Horatio Korman (from Dreadnought and Ganymede) and teams him with two engaging new protagonists who have been touched by the supernatural in the past, nun Eileen Callahan and former priest Juan Miguel Quintero Rios.

A welcome new wrinkle in an established series, Jacaranda shows there’s plenty of life left in the Clockwork Century universe. (4 of 5 stars)” — San Francisco Book Review

Dreams of Shreds and Tatters by Amanda Downum

“Downum (the Necromancer Chronicles) grounds this tale of friendship and love in a community of artists and magic users. When a ritual goes terribly wrong and leaves Vancouver artist Blake Enderly in a coma, his best friend, Liz Drake, and her stereotypically English boyfriend, Alex, travel to Vancouver to find out what happened to him. To save his life, Liz must navigate deadly magical peril in the waking world and undertake a quest in an equally dangerous dream world that leads her to Robert Chambers’s Carcosa and its ruler, the Yellow King. Downum’s narrative is packed to excess with artists and hangers-on, a dangerous drug with connections to the dream world, bloodthirsty maenads, and gun-toting cleanup artists specializing in supernatural mishaps. Readers eager for diverse characters will delight in the casually displayed variety of sexual and romantic orientations, including Liz’s comfortable asexuality. The vividly evoked bohemian, magical Vancouver and the haunting dream lands are largely secondary to the bonds of love, romantic and otherwise, among the novel’s likable, intensely beleaguered core characters.” — Publishers Weekly

I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest

“Back in fifth grade, best friends May and Libby created Princess X, a katana-wielding heroine who wears Converse sneakers with her ball gown. Ever since Libby and her mother died in a freak accident, May’s life has been as gray as her Seattle home ­until the 16-year-old spots a Princess X sticker in a store window, leading her to a Princess X webcomic that suggests that Libby might still be alive. With the help of Trick, a hacker-for-hire, May follows the trail that Princess X’s near-mythic narrative leaves for her, which incorporates Seattle landmarks like the Fremont Troll and characters like the dangerous Needle Man and the mysterious, helpful Jackdaw. Illustrations from the Princess X comic­ skillfully rendered by Ciesemier and printed in purple­ add greatly to this techno-thriller’s tension. Fresh and contemporary, this hybrid novel/comic packs a lot of plot in a relatively short book, but its strongest suit may be Priest’s keen understanding of the chasmic gap between the way teens and adults engage in the landscape of the Internet.” — Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

The new paperback edition of Jim Butcher’s SKIN GAME, the fifteenth Dresden Files novel, made the New York Times mass market paperback fiction bestsellers list for a second week, this time at #20!

The audio edition of Last Plane to Heaven: The Final Collection by Jay Lake has received an Earphones Award (and a great review) from AudioFile Magazine.

“Fans of sci-fi writer Jay Lake will feast on this diverse selection of stories performed by an acclaimed group of narrators. Whether one likes aliens, marvels at how Katherine Kellgren can transform any work into a masterpiece, appreciates angels, or can’t wait for an opportunity to listen to Kellgren’s colleagues, Robin Miles, Victor Bevine, and Jay Snyder, this production thoroughly satisfying. Lake’s talents, on display in this posthumous work, benefit from the divergent styles and panache of the narrators. Kellgren’s delivery is flawless, while Miles’s is understated. Snyder’s and Bevine’s deliveries and intensity are equally impressive. This audiobook is a delight not only for Lake’s enthusiasts but also for anyone who appreciates the genre.” — AudioFile Magazine