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RDSP Signs Writing Team from New Zealand

RDSP is pleased to announce a two-book deal with a writing team from New Zealand—Lee Murray and Dan Rabarts. The first book in this dark detective mashup is titled Hounds of the Underworld and it launches The Path of Ra series. “Though the speculative fiction scene in New Zealand is small, it’s also vibrant and we’re excited to be able to expose some of that talent to the U.S. audience,” says RDSP’s John Lawson. There is an interesting mix of elements in this story which is the trademark of an RDSP release. First, the tale is told from two alternating perspectives—Penny Yee, a scientist with Chinese heritage and her adopted brother who is of Maori descent. It also blends elements of the noir/detective genre with both science fiction and horror. “When I heard the pitch for this at StokerCon I was really excited and the manuscript delivered delightful chills and some seriously scary moments,” says editor Jennifer Barnes. The first book is scheduled for release in 2017.

Hounds of the Underworld

On the verge of losing her laboratory, her savings, and all respect for herself, Penny Yee lands her first contract as scientific consult to the police department. And with seventeen murder cases on the go, the surly inspector is happy to leave her to it. Only she’s going to need to get around, and that means her slightly unhinged little brother, that is, her adopted brother, Matiu, will be doing the driving. But something about the case spooks Matiu, something other than the lack of a body in the congealing pool of blood in the locked room at the warehouse, or that odd little bowl…

Matiu doesn’t like anything about this case, from the voices that screamed at him when he touched that bowl, to the way his hateful imaginary friend Makere has come back to torment him but Penny isn’t giving up on her big break. But the deeper they get, the more Matiu realises that they’ll have to fall into hell before they have any chance walking away. And hell is a long way down.

About the Authors

Dan Rabarts writes fantasy and speculative fiction. He is a sometime narrator of podcasts (including stories for the Hugo award-winning StarShipSofa), occasional sailor of sailing things, and father of two wee miracles in a little house on a hill, under the southern sun. In 2014 Dan received the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best New Talent. Baby Teeth – Bite-sized Tales of Terror, a horror anthology co-edited with Lee Murray, also won the SJV for Best Collected Work and the Australian Shadows Award for Best Edited Work. Dan’s short stories have appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Aurealis Magazine, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and on the Parsec Award-winning steampunk podcast Tales from the Archives, among many others. Find him here: dan.rabarts.com; Twitter; Facebook

Lee Murray writes fiction for adults and children. She is a five-time winner of the Sir Julius Vogel Award for science fiction, fantasy and horror, and holds an Australian Shadows Award (with Dan Rabarts) for Best Edited Collection for Baby Teeth: Bite-sized Tales of Terror . She is co-editor of five anthologies, including four by New Zealand intermediate and secondary students, as well as At the Edge (with Dan Rabarts) a collection of antipodean speculative fiction. Lee’s fourth novel, Into the Mist, a speculative thriller set in the Urewera ranges, is published by Australia’s Cohesion Press. Find her here: leemurray.info; Facebook

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