In Executioner's Heart-- the fourth Newbury & Hobbes steampunk mystery from George Mann--the detectives are up against the most frightening villainess England has yet seen. It's normal for Charles Bainbridge, Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard, to be called to the scene of a crime, but this is the third murder in quick succession where the victim's chest has been cracked open and their heart torn out. Bainbridge suspects there's a symbolic reason for the stolen hearts, so he sends for supernatural specialist Sir Maurice Newbury and his determined assistant, Miss Veronica Hobbes. Unfortunately, neither of them are in much shape to take the case. Veronica has been hunting for some way to alleviate the mysterious forces that have been hounding her family of late, and Newbury has been retained by a private client: Edward, Prince of Wales, who's concerned that his mother, the Queen of England, is losing her grip on the nation. However, the two detectives pull together long enough to determine that the killings may be the work of a mercenary known as the Executioner. French, uncannily beautiful, her flesh covered in tattoos and inlaid with precious metals, the Executioner is famed throughout Europe, with legends going back for hundreds of years. Something is keeping her in a form of living stasis, but her heart is damaged, leaving her an emotionless shell, inexplicably driven to collect her victims' hearts as trophies. Who is the Executioner targeting, and who hired her? Why has Veronica stopped trusting Bainbridge? What does the Prince of Wales really want? These are just some of the mysteries that Newbury and Hobbes will confront on the way to unearthing the secret of the Executioner's Heart. Newbury & Hobbes Investigation #1 The Affinity Bridge #2 The Osiris Ritual #3 The Immortality Engine #4 The Executioner's Heart #5 The Revenant Express “A riveting page-turner that mixes the society of manners in turn-of-the-century London with a gritty and brutal murder mystery. In the midst of all this, automatons clank about, zombies lurk in the night, and dirigibles float majestically in the sky--until they crash and burn.... Will leave readers clamoring for the next book.” ― AM New York on The Affinity Bridge “Steampunk is making a comeback, and with this novel Mann is leading the charge.... An engaging melodrama that rattles along at a breakneck pace.” ― The Guardian on The Affinity Bridge “A riveting page-turner that mixes the society of manners in turn-of-the-century London with a gritty and brutal murder mystery. In the midst of all this, automatons clank about, zombies lurk in the night, and dirigibles float majestically in the sky--until they crash and burn.... Will leave readers clamoring for the next book.” ― AM New York on The Affinity Bridge “Steampunk is making a comeback, and with this novel Mann is leading the charge.... An engaging melodrama that rattles along at a breakneck pace.” ― The Guardian on The Affinity Bridge GEORGE MANN is the author of the Newbury & Hobbes Investigations, beginning with The Affinity Bridge , and other works of fiction including Ghosts of Manhattan and official Doctor Who tie-in material. He edited the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction anthology series and The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . CHAPTER 1 LONDON, MARCH 1903 The ticking was all she could hear. Like the ominous beating of a hundred mechanised hearts—syncopated, chaotic—it filled the small room, counting away the seconds, measuring her every breath. A carnival of clockwork, a riot of cogs. She realised she was holding her breath and let it out. She peered further into the dim room from the doorway, clutching the wooden frame. The paintwork was smooth and cold beneath her fingers. The room was lit only by the flickering light of a gas lamp on a round table in the centre of the space. A warm orange glow seeped from beneath the half-open lamp shutters, casting long shadows that seemed to carouse and dance of their own volition. The air was thick with a dank, musty odour. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. The room probably hadn’t been aired for years, perhaps even decades. Most of the windows had long ago been boarded over or bricked up, hidden away to keep the outside world at bay. Or, she mused, to prevent whoever lived inside from looking out. Clearly, the hotel had fallen on hard times long before the accident had put it out of business. The décor reflected the fashions of the previous century, an echo of life from fifty or a hundred years earlier. Now the once-elegant sideboard, the gilt-framed mirror, the sumptuous chaise longue, were all covered in a thick layer of powdery dust, which bloomed in little puffs as she crept into the room, particles swirling in the air around her. There was evidence that rodents had nested in the soft furnishings, pulling the downy innards from the cushions and leaving their spoor scattered like seeds across the floorboards. There was a sense of a