Greaveburn — Craig Hallam

A HERO MURDERED. A GIRL ALONE. A CITY OF VILLAINS. From the crumbling belfry to the citadel's stained glass eye, across acres of cobbled streets and alleyways that never see daylight, Greaveburn is a city with darkness at its core. Gothic spires battle for height, overlapping each other until the skyline is a jagged mass of thorns. Archduke Choler sits on the throne, his black sealed letters foretell death for the person named inside. Abrasia, the rightful heir, lives as a recluse in order to stay alive. With her father murdered and her only ally lost, Abrasia is alone in a city where the crooked Palace Guard, a scientist's assistant who is more beast than man and a duo of body snatchers are all on her list of enemies. Under the cobbled streets lurk the Broken Folk, deformed rebels led by the hideously deformed Darrant, a man who once swore to protect the city. In a darkened laboratory, the devious Professor Loosestrife builds a contraption known only as "The Womb." With Greaveburn being torn apart around her, can Abrasia avenge her father's murder before the Archduke's letter spells her doom?