There Are No Saints

Lark (Brutal Prince) disturbs with a series launch that goes beyond dark romance and verges into erotic horror. Cole Blackwell is an affluent, celebrated artist in San Francisco—and a serial killer who thinks of murder and the desecration of his victims’ corpses as an extension of his art. When struggling artist Mara Eldritch is kidnapped and nearly killed by Alastor Shaw, a rival of Cole’s in both art and crime, Cole witnesses her bleeding out on the ground and assumes he’ll be seeing reports of her dead body in the news. But resilient Mara improbably survives—and Cole, realizing this, quickly becomes obsessed with her and begins stalking her, and even gives her a studio space so he can keep close tabs on her. Mara suspects that Cole may be dangerous, but she can’t deny her attraction to him. Meanwhile, Cole wrestles with whether he desires to kill Mara—or just plain desires her. It’s unclear what, if anything, Lark is trying to say with this deeply twisted dynamic, or if the intent is only to shock. Mara’s backstory, which includes childhood abuse, is poorly handled, and being inside Cole’s head as he fantasizes about violence is difficult to stomach. There is an audience for this, but it’s niche. (Oct.)