Title: Unknown
Series: Rath & Rune: Book Three
Author: Jordan L. Hawk
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: 182 Pages
Category: Historical, Fantasy
Rating: 5 Stars
At a Glance: Widdershins is legendary for knowing its own. It’s a place sorcerers, humans, and those who are not quite human call home, and a place where eldritch horrors visit their wrath upon the heads of those they deem a threat. Jordan L. Hawk has done everything right as he’s handed the town over to its new keepers while Whyborne and Griffin are off in Egypt.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Librarian Sebastian Rath and his lover Vesper Rune continue their search for the evil Books of the Bound. But in the meantime, the young men in Sebastian’s social circle start dying.
Though the deaths look like self-administered poisonings, Sebastian soon comes to realize a killer is at work. And not just any murderer, but one wielding the dark power of the Book of Bone.
To stop a madman, Sebastian must choose whether or not to embrace the unsettling powers gifted to him by the previous Books. Because if he fails to stop the killer, Ves could be the next target.
Review: Hell hath no fury like a librarian under attack. At least that’s true in Widdershins, at the Nathaniel R. Ladysmith Museum. There’s nothing Mr. Quinn and his staff won’t do to protect the rare—and sometimes dangerous—books in the library’s care, which they are compelled to prove again in Unknown.
Sebastian Rath is bound to the Book of Breath and the Book of Flesh. The bindings have altered him in ways that do become integral to his survival, but they may still wield the power to corrupt him in unspeakable ways. It’s a conundrum which has Vesper Rune at odds because as much as he fears those powers and how they’ll affect Sebastian, he also must feel some gratitude that Sebastian can defend himself. As Sebastian and Ves pursue the third book, the Book of Bone, they also find themselves in pursuit of a killer who is using the book’s power to commit murder and wreak havoc on the town. If they can find the book and stop the assailant, the question of what Sebastian binding himself to it will do to him remains a substantial point of tension and danger.
Widdershins is legendary for knowing its own. It’s a place sorcerers, humans, and those who are not quite human call home, and a place where eldritch horrors visit their wrath upon the heads of those they deem a threat. Except vampires. Apparently, vampires don’t exist (hahaha, are we sure about that, Sebastian?). Jordan L. Hawk has done everything right as he’s handed the town over to its new keepers while Whyborne and Griffin are off in Egypt. Something tells me they’ll be making an appearance sooner rather than later, though, and I’m thoroughly psyched for it.
There is family tension that plays out alongside the overarching danger posed by the Book of Bones and the person who’s using it to kill. Sebastian and Ves—and, of course, Ves’s brother Noct—do have lives apart from the the museum. Having said that, however, Ves and Noct’s mother and grandfather are both part of the mayhem, so their involvement over-complicates things for the brothers by a good margin. Noct is also forging a new relationship with Irene Endicott that would benefit from the Seeker of Truth’s endorsement. Though Irene wouldn’t let the lack of it stop her, which makes me love her all the more for her fierceness and fortitude.
The fourth and final Book of the Bound is still out there somewhere. Who possesses the Book of Blood and what their intentions are with it remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: much like the truth, its use is sure to be rarely pure or ever simple. Someone, or several someones, is almost guaranteed to suffer exsanguination (hello, vampires?), and I’ll be right there for it.
You can buy Unknown here: