Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross presents the
next case in The Laundry Files, “a weirdly alluring blend of
super-spy thriller, deadpan comic fantasy, and Lovecraftian
horror” (Kirkus Reviews).
Dominique
O’Brien—her friends call her Mo—lives a curious double life
with her husband, Bob Howard. To the average civilian,
they’re boring middle-aged civil servants. But within the
labyrinthian secret circles of Her Majesty’s government,
they’re operatives working for the nation’s occult security
service known as the Laundry, charged with defending Britain
against dark supernatural forces threatening
humanity.
Mo’s latest assignment is assisting the
police in containing an unusual outbreak: ordinary citizens
suddenly imbued with extraordinary abilities of the
super-powered kind. Unfortunately these people prefer
playing super-pranks instead of super-heroics. The Mayor of
London being levitated by a dumpy man in Trafalgar Square
would normally be a source of shared amusement for Mo and
Bob, but they’re currently separated because something’s
come between them—something evil.
An
antique violin, an Erich Zann original, made of human white
bone, was designed to produce music capable of slaughtering
demons. Mo is the custodian of this unholy instrument. It
invades her dreams and yearns for the blood of her
colleagues—and her husband. And despite Mo’s proficiency as
a world class violinist, it cannot be controlled…