On the surface, life is going well for Victorian special agent Sir Maurice Newbury, who has brilliantly solved several nigh-impossible cases for Queen Victoria with his indomitable assistant, Miss Veronica Hobbes, by his side. But these facts haven't stopped Newbury from succumbing increasingly frequently to his dire flirtation with the lure of opium. His addiction is fueled in part by his ill-gotten knowledge of Veronica's secret relationship with the queen, which Newbury fears must be some kind of betrayal. Veronica, consumed by worry and care for her prophetic but physically fragile sister, Amelia, has no idea that she is a catalyst for Newbury's steadily worsening condition. Veronica and Newbury's dear friend Bainbridge, the chief investigator at Scotland Yard, tries to cover for him as much as possible, but when the body of a well-known criminal turns up, Bainbridge and Veronica track Newbury down in an opium den and drag him out to help them with the case. The body clearly, irrefutably, belongs to the man in question, but shortly after his body is brought to the morgue, a crime is discovered that bears all the dead man's hallmarks. Bainbridge and Veronica fear someone is committing copycat crimes, but Newbury is not sure. Somehow, the details are too perfect for it to be the work of a copycat. But how can a dead man commit a crime? Newbury & Hobbes Investigation #1 The Affinity Bridge #2 The Osiris Ritual #3 The Immortality Engine #4 The Executioner's Heart #5 The Revenant Express “Mann turns out a riveting page-turner that mixes the society of manners in turn-of-the-century London with a gritty and brutal murder mystery. And 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' “A science fantasy novel that should appeal to lovers of both genres. One of the biggest surprises of the year, and I can't recommend the book enough.” ― Fantasy Book Critic 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 . The Immorality Engine By George Mann Tor Books Copyright © 2012 George Mann All right reserved. ISBN: 9780765327772 The Immorality Engine CHAPTER 1 T he soft loam sucked at his boots, thick and oozing, as if trying to pull him down into its slick, waterlogged depths, down amongst the corpses and the coffins and the dead. Newbury shifted, looking for somewhere even remotely dry to stand. All around him the ground was clotted with mud, made worse by the incessant rain that pattered like a drumbeat upon the brim of his hat. Mist, rising from the warm earth, curled around the forest of listing headstones, clinging to the trees and shrubs and casting the entire scene in an eerie, ethereal shroud. Figures moved like shadows, all dressed in black, their pale faces hidden behind veils or hands.Nearby, crows were picking at the stringy flesh of a dead fox beneath the shelter of an ancient oak tree. Newbury watched them with a grim fascination.Around the huddled group of mourners, aperimeter of uniformed bobbies stood like ghostly sentries, half-visible in the vaporous morning, there to ward off roaming Revenants and other unsavoury things that loomed unseen in the shadows.Graveyards such as this one had become the hunting ground of the soon-to-be-dead. Newbury wondered if perhaps the Revenants felt a kinship with the recently interred, or whether it was simply the lure of warm bodies that drew them in; people gathered in a quiet place, unsuspecting and too lost in their mourning to notice the shambling approach of the plagueridden flesh eaters. He supposed it didn't really matter. Either way, he wasn't convinced a handful of bobbies would be able to stop the creatures if they decided to attack.He looked around at the faces in the small crowd. There were six people attending the funeral. He couldn't help thinking there should have been more. He watched their unmoving shapes, hulked low against the torrential rain. They were there to bury Amelia Hobbes.Newbury tried to listen to the words of the vicar, who conducted his sermon in a solemn, monotonous voice at the side of the grave. Beside him, a small altar boy clutched an umbrella as shelter for the holy man, but was bearing the brunt of the weather himself, soaked to the bone, his once-white robes now splashed with mud and dirt. A large pile of earth was heaped neatly beside the coff