Spectre of War (Lands Beyond)

In a steam-powered Britain ruled by a third Queen Victoria, danger walks on iron legs―and conspiracy floats in the skies.

The streets of London rumble beneath the feet of colossal clockwork giants, and airships crisscross the smog-choked skies, carrying whispers of war. After a devastating calamity sweeps across Europe, Inspector Vanessa Hargreaves of Scotland Yard is assigned to a strange new beat: enforcing the laws of steamcraft technology in a city cracking under pressure.

Teamed with the flamboyant and unpredictable Detective Arturo C. Adler, Vanessa stumbles upon a dark plot―one that threatens to unleash a manufactured plague to stop an imminent Ottoman incursion from the East. But as enemies in brass and velvet close in, Vanessa must confront not only a world on the edge of war, but her own crumbling faith in Queen and Country.

Caught between clockwork empires, chemical warfare, and the decaying grandeur of a Victorian age that refuses to die, Vanessa must uncover the truth before the nation is consumed by a new kind of horror―one born not of fire, but of sickness and silence.

A thrilling steampunk detective mystery filled with espionage, grit, and grandeur. Dive into a world where gaslamp intrigue meets dystopia, and loyalty may be the most dangerous weapon of all.

Kin S. Law is a Chinese-American author who looks to include diversity, representation, and truth in his steampunk. Instead of a historical fiction where one event has changed things, his worlds represent what could have been, what should be, and what always was. He draws from a life lived in multiple cultures, but always with a love for everything weird and geeky. He lives in NYC.