The Bone Reader

Cemirowl is gifted, and cursed. She sees the spirits of the dead, and sees the future in her basket of bones; her sight is cryptic, lacking, and mostly useless. In her tiny village, she is a priestess, but still an object of curiosity and an outcast.

A chance meeting brings one of the king's caballiers to her door for a reading, for nothing more than some entertainment. He is well-entertained indeed by her predictions of his lady loves... and far less so when she foretells a coming death. He leaves, dismissing her. But for all that her power is mysterious and often confusing, it is never, ever wrong.

When Queen Tidyri is murdered, the caballiers return for Cemirowl. She is brought unwillingly into the palace and into a web of intrigue and lies, where King Larthor rages in his grief. He demands that Cemirowl now use her gifts to find the one who killed his beloved wife.Cemirowl must draw on all her abilities - her powers, no matter how unreliable; her intuition for reading people; her knowledge; and her wits - to discover the murderer, lay the spirits of the dead to rest, and help the living to grieve and find peace. And, perhaps, she will finally find a place where she belongs.

THE BONE READER is a fantastical murder mystery set in the rich world of Ihyel, where the hard-won peace between two kingdoms rests on the shoulders of one determined, compassionate priestess.

Other Books by Mab Morris

The Red Khémèresh
"Morris's worldbuilding, with its intricacy and itssensitivity to anthropological and mythological detail, inevitably reminds oneof Ursula LeGuin."
--Kathryn Hinds, The Healer'sChoice.

Fate of the Red Queen
"The greatest strength of Fate of the Red Queen is its world-building, from which both plotand characters arise organically. This is not a story that could take placeanywhere except for the Jungle of the Dead and its environs. Fate of the Red Queen is a quietlycompelling book that rewards the reader by providing answers to elements thatseem impossibly contradictory at the tale's start, but prove to be the heart ofa mystery equal parts sacred and tragic."
--Jane Lindskold, Changer,Through Wolf's Eyes, Asphodel, and more.

"Mab Morris is a fantasy author extraordinaire. A masterworld-builder, her work will transport you to realms you thought lived only inyour dreams and nightmares, and she is as comfortable orchestrating epicbattles as she is dissecting the inner lives of her characters."
--Layton Green, TheBlackwood Saga

Forthcoming
Seek The Monster