Death Doesn’t Bargain

Kenyon follows Deadmen Walking with a rollicking second supernatural pirate adventure featuring grim humor and just a trace of romance. Cameron Jack is a demon hunter and member of the Sea Witch crew, resurrected pirates who are tasked with saving the world. She also happens to have a crush on Kalder, a mermaid crewmate who bargained his life to save both Cameron and her brother, Paden, from being tortured in hell—and the crew refuses to leave him behind. Complicating the machinations to reclaim their missing companion is the return of the Malachai, the latest incarnation of a cursed warlord who was imprisoned during a great war between the world’s protectors and those advocating fear and brutality. He has broken free of his chains and is determined to make the world his own. Readers will be jarred by the uncontrolled veering among deadly battles on land and sea, oversaturated worldbuilding, and deus ex machina revelations, but the author’s dramatic and comedic storytelling style and charismatic characters carry the day. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (May)