When Kamphor’s west end sees a series of prostitutes murdered, its citizens are fearful that a serial killer known as the Knife has returned. But the mortician Sink, owner of Kamphor’s finest morgue, doesn’t believe that the Knife has resumed killing – and he’d prove it, if his former student and current hateful rival Damien Torvault wasn’t getting in the way.
Sink and his two apprentices, handsome-if-loony Joshua Finkle and merkind Vona Urgarth, investigate the murders on their own. Sink’s ability to tell exactly when and how a person will die just by touching them earns him no ...
When Kamphor’s west end sees a series of prostitutes murdered, its citizens are fearful that a serial killer known as the Knife has returned. But the mortician Sink, owner of Kamphor’s finest morgue, doesn’t believe that the Knife has resumed killing – and he’d prove it, if his former student and current hateful rival Damien Torvault wasn’t getting in the way.
Sink and his two apprentices, handsome-if-loony Joshua Finkle and merkind Vona Urgarth, investigate the murders on their own. Sink’s ability to tell exactly when and how a person will die just by touching them earns him no friends, but it does yield some interesting clues – as does Sink’s other gift. The one which incites him to wear women’s clothing.
The investigation is further complicated when Joshua’s time is taken up running a 15-Step program, and Vona becomes intrigued by a repugnant yet strangely irresistible cook. Even Sink’s next-door neighbor, Policewoman Arifia Fowles, seems hell-bent on not just hindering Sink but arresting him, regardless of a crime.
But Sink presses urgently on, because he senses a strangeness in the air: the magic-smell of necromancy, a magic that has long been illegal in Kamphor… for it requires human sacrifice.
A Festival of Skeletons remains a must-read. It’s a cruel, humorous page-turner for the wicked at heart.
Jean Johnson
I’m not only reserving bookshelf space for the printed edition of A Festival of Skeletons, I’ll be reserving reading and re-reading time for it, too. Be careful of this one, readers; you won’t want to put it down, either!
~Jean Johnson, New York Times Bestselling Author of the Sons of Destiny series
A Festival of Skeletons is a character driven novel that had me cracking up left and right. …there’s witty banter and a wonderful flow to the novel that’s … reminiscent of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel.
The plot follows an even pace with plenty of surprises that are perfectly foreshadowed. I was kicking myself that I didn’t catch on to them earlier, but I was amazed at how wonderfully put-together this story is.
SF & F Society of New Zealand
R. J. Astruc is fortunate that I don’t know where she lives otherwise I would be besieging her domicile and demanding, with money and menaces, a sequel…
SF Book Reviews
A Festival of Skeletons is like a love child of Terry Pratchett and Robert Rankin – a pacy, intelligent comedy novel that’s crazier than a cat on catnip, with excellent characterisation that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Highly recommended.
Product Details
BN ID: 2940012296801
Publisher: Crossed Genres Publications
Publication date: 12/1/2010
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 168
Sales rank: 923,395
File size: 298 KB
Meet the Author
RJ Astruc wrote A Festival of Skeletons in three months while on a particularly self-destructive college bender. She currently lives in New Zealand and fits into almost every minority group. Her fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Aurealis, Abyss & Apex, Andromeda Spaceways, Midnight Echo, and like a bajillion other places. Her second novel, Harmonica & Gig, is due out in 2011. Her husband has six nipples.
Her website is http://www.rachelastruc.com.
Her blog is http://zeemverse.livejournal.com.
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Overview
When Kamphor’s west end sees a series of prostitutes murdered, its citizens are fearful that a serial killer known as the Knife has returned. But the mortician Sink, owner of Kamphor’s finest morgue, doesn’t believe that the Knife has resumed killing – and he’d prove it, if his former student and current hateful rival Damien Torvault wasn’t getting in the way.Sink and his two apprentices, handsome-if-loony Joshua Finkle and merkind Vona Urgarth, investigate the murders on their own. Sink’s ability to tell exactly when and how a person will die just by touching them earns him no ...