The Knave of Hearts [Signed paperback]

Book NINE in the Red Dog Conspiracy series.

From New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Patricia Loofbourrow.

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After the devastating events of our last chapter, all private eye Jacqueline Spadros wants is to get her life back.

Then a missing person she thought she'd never track down falls into her lap.

Jacqui is thrown into a series of events which not only puts her and everyone around her into danger, but changes her life forever.

Warning: on-screen murder, smoking, foul language, infidelity, betrayal, description of injury, gun violence, gore, on-screen suicide, child injury

This is the ninth chapter of a 13-part serial novel:

• The Jacq of Spades
• The Queen of Diamonds
• The Ace of Clubs
• The King of Hearts
• The Ten of Spades
• The Five of Diamonds
• The Two of Hearts
  
• The Three of Spades
  
• The Knave of Hearts <-- you are here
  
• The Four of Clubs
• The Jack of Diamonds (coming October 2024)
  

Red Dog Conspiracy is one very big story, and each book is a chapter in it. Please read the first eight books of this series before going further.

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Enjoy a sample from The Knave of Hearts:

(warning: spoilers for the first eight books)

 

The hall burst with riotous color. Men, women, children from all over Merca, nay the world, had come to celebrate the marriage of one of their own.

Zeppelin pilots in their ceremonial uniforms, the Travelers' Board in full regalia. A banner at the far end: Vig And Natalia Forever.

I sat in the left corner nearest the door, staring dully at the spray of bright flowers on my table. Apparently one didn't wear full mourning to a wedding in Bridges, so instead I wore Anna Goren's deep purple dress and veil. With the crush of dignitaries in the room, no one gave me any notice.

But I was well guarded. My loyal footman Skip Honor stood behind me, dressed in his finest. The housekeeper of my apartments, Mary Spadros, sat beside me to my left. Her husband (and my apartments’ butler) Blitz beside her, their little daughter Ariana bouncing in his arms. My son Acevedo, just a month old, lay sleeping in his pram beside me to my right, his nurse Daisy sitting beside him. His guards, two men close by, two more stationed farther away, had been assigned the task by my husband Tony.

One was his first cousin and right hand man, Ten Hogan, who the men called Sawbuck. He stood looking bored. Sawbuck had wanted little to do with Acevedo, not even visiting when he was born, and only gave him a glance when assigned the duty.

Tony hadn't wanted me to bring the boy, but his parents insisted. "It'd be too much for you or me to go," Roy had said. "Particularly since they don't want us." Though he lived in our quadrant, Vígharður Vikenti had a particular dislike for the Spadros Family. "But since the Travelers' Board will be there, we need someone to attend. And who better than our new little Heir?"

I thought it a masterful move. Vig and I were old friends, and who could fault a new mother for bringing her babe?

The calculated irony of it all.

I felt in a half-world between the living and the dead. My bleeding had stopped. My color had mostly returned, my strength almost what it had been. But even at the wedding of two dear friends, I felt a terrible lonely emptiness inside.

Acevedo slept now, with the noise and bustle around him, but at Spadros Manor he cried day and night. Dr. Salmon called it colic, and said it should abate on its own "in a month or two."

Another two months of this and I feared I would go mad.