The Last Hour Between Worlds

Starred review from August 1, 2024

On leave from the Guild of Hounds, Kembral Thorne is determined to enjoy her time away from her newborn while at Dona Marjorie Swift's year-turning party. But when party guests start dying around her, Kem is drawn back into her work, determined to discover the killer. Her nemesis, Rika Nonesuch, is also searching for answers, and the two try to set aside their differences to uncover what's going on. With every chime of the clock, they fall into an Echo, a layer of reality that gets more and more twisted each time they descend; a person could be lost here forever. She knows that no one has ever survived going too deep, but that may be the least of their problems when powerful figures play bloody games. It's even worse when time resets to the start of the party, and no one remembers what has happened, except Kem. VERDICT Clever, empathetic characters, an unusual world, and a rapidly paced story that keeps readers guessing will delight fans of Caruso's (The Ivory Tomb) and create new ones.--Kristi Chadwick

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2024

Caruso (The Ivory Tomb) launches a new fantasy series featuring reality-bending magic and a sapphic romance. Kembral Thorne finds herself accidentally involved with dangerous Echo games while attending the year-turning ball. As the ancient Echo lords plunge them into deadly realities, it will be up to Kem and her nemesis, burglar Rika Nonesuch, to stop them. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2024 Library Journal

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 9, 2024
Caruso (The Tethered Mage) kicks off The Echo Archives series with this fast-paced interdimensional fantasy. Below the Prime reality are several Echo layers, alternate realms that get increasingly surreal and creepy the farther down they go, with ever more dangerous denizens. In the Prime city-state of Acantis, Kem Thorne is a Hound, responsible for investigating murders and finding Prime kids lost in the Echo layers. She’s currently going stir crazy, however, while on maternity leave. When she attends a New Year’s party at a City Elder’s mansion she notices strange objects she recognizes as Echoes. Then the party guests start dropping from poisoned wine and the entire mansion falls through a hole in the Veil between worlds into Echo 1. There, all the party guests are still alive, and Kem learns the whole thing has been orchestrated by “powerful Echoes who couldn’t meaningfully hurt one another” and so intend to “play out their conflicts through hapless human proxies in some twisted contest.” Kem must make amends with her nemesis, Rika Nonesuch, a thieving Cat, to free both of them before the clock strikes midnight. Caruso never takes her foot off the gas, marrying riveting action with meticulous worldbuilding and eccentric characters through effortless prose. Readers will be hooked. Agent: Naomi Davis, BookEnds Literary.

November 8, 2024
Caruso, the brilliant mind behind the Swords and Fire (The Tethered Mage, 2017) and Rooks and Ruin (The Obsidian Tower, 2020) series, presents a new adventure, the first in the Echo Archives series. Kembral Thorne is a new mother and part of the Guild of Hounds, noted for picking up the smell of trouble. When she goes to a party with her colleagues, people start dropping dead, and she is anxious to investigate. Forced to work with her nemesis, cat burglar Rika Nonesuch, Kembral discovers that a mysterious grandfather clock is behind the mayhem. Relying on their wits and each other, the two will need to solve this mystery to save the city. Representing LGBTQ characters and single, working mothers, this tale has twists and turns aplenty. On top of the witty banter between the female protagonists, the story flows like an Agatha Christie novel with the angst and humor of the TV show Castle. This is a different kind of adventure that readers of Caruso's fantasies with a romantic and mysterious twist will enjoy.

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