Mortal Current

Publication: November 1, 2026

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The Circle's next victim

London, 1867. A man lies dead on the Wapping mudflats, a serpent split by lightning burned into his chest. The police dismiss the death as dockside violence. Disgraced detective Thomas Fenwick catches the scent of ozone on the body. He has seen that mark before.

Inessa Volkova, a Russian exile who can draw shadows around herself, knows the mark as well. It leads back to the man responsible for her father's death. Jemmy Doyle, a street boy with sharp ears and quick feet, overhears two men discussing whom the Circle will take next. They know his name.

Fenwick follows the trail from the Thames to the dockside warehouses. Behind their shutters, copper coils hum through the night. Men are taken inside alive and cast into the river when the work is done. The Circle, a secret society, is drawing the vital spark from the living for a purpose Fenwick has yet to uncover.

To stop them, he must rely on a woman bent on revenge and a boy who refuses to stay out of danger. The next body they pull from the river might be Jemmy's.