cover image Trailer Park Fae

Trailer Park Fae

Lilith Saintcrow. Orbit, $15 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-316-27785-3

Saintcrow’s urban fantasy series launch is expertly crafted with heartbreak and mistrust, far darker and lovelier than the title suggests. Widower Jeremiah Gallow—a half-human, half-Sidhe former armormaster to the Sidhe queen of the Summer Court—is living a carefully mortal life as a construction worker in our world. He’s unaware of a plague sweeping through the Summer Sidhe, possibly sent by the lord of Unwinter. When Robin Ragged, also half-Sidhe, dodges an Unwinter knight and seeks shelter in a rundown bar, Jeremiah can’t help but notice her, and her resemblance to his dead wife unexpectedly draws out his protective instincts. Robin, a rare Realmaker (someone who has the ability to make objects that have unfading enchantments), is the queen’s chosen courier for the newly discovered plague cure. But when the queen takes Robin’s adopted child as her new plaything, Robin bargains for the boy’s life, setting off a chain of events that will bring about open war between the Summer and Unwinter courts. Saintcrow’s artful, poignant descriptions remain with the reader long after the tale’s end, as does the persistent sense of dark, unsettling unease. Agent: Miriam Kriss, Irene Goodman Literary. (June)