Selene Shade, Resurrectionist for Hire by Victoria Dalpe

In the first installment of Victoria Dalpe's new dark fantasy series, we meet Selene Shade, a resurrectionist for hire who might just have taken on the wrong case.

With the ability to restore life to the dead, "Zombie Queen" Selene Shade has earned quite a reputation. Not that it helps her get dates. Her bed may be empty but business is booming. That is until her life is thrown into disarray when a brutal killer comes to town and all signs point to her being the next victim.

Enlisted by the police department due to her unique craft, she must make new alliances, deal with old rivals, and maybe even save the world-whether she wants to or not-all the while avoiding the gruesome allure of dark magic and the sacrificial ritual of a mad cultist.

In Resurrectionist for Hire, Dalpe weaves a dire tale of magic, murder, and romance. To survive, Selene will have to harness her power of the dead and overcome her struggle to connect with the living.

Victoria Dalpe is a Providence-based horror writer and painter. Her short fiction has appeared in over forty-five anthologies. Her previous books include a short story collection, Les Femmes Grotesques and the gothic horror novel Parasite Life. She is a member of the HWA and the New England Horror Writers.

"Reading like a mashup between True Blood and Already Dead, with a soupcon of Warm Bodies, Dalpe's latest novel pulls out all the stops. A luminous and raucous reworking of everything you thought you knew about the undead, witches, necromancy, and parallel dimensions. Fun, funny, and sexy-but also thoroughly blood-soaked." -Brian Evenson, author of Father of Lies and Last Days

"Dalpe wields literary black magic yet again. Cool, sardonic, and asking the big, pointed questions about life, unlife, and death. Selene Shade: Resurrectionist for Hire kicks off what promises to be a tremendous new series." -Laird Barron, author of Not a Speck of Light (Stories)

"Victoria Dalpe has woven a magical mythology you want to get lost in, combining elements of the macabre, the cosmic, and the slyly mundane. Selene Shade: Resurrectionist for Hire is a wonderfully clever ride through death rituals, contract work, and the possible end of the world." -Nadia Bulkin author of She Said Destroy

"Victoria Dalpe's Selene Shade: Resurrectionist for Hire is at once a gripping suspense tale and a phantasmagoria of magic and mayhem. At varying intervals, I found myself begging for Selene to catch a break and praying for more monsters... and more murder, just to see what Selene would do. Dalpe could easily borrow her heroine's moniker, for only a Zombie Queen of the darkest and most delicious talents could cook up a work so devilish, so twisted, and so gratifyingly written." -Christa Carmen, two-time Bram Stoker-nominated author of The Daughters of Block Island and Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked

"Dalpe masterfully weaves a world full of darkness and imagination that knows no bounds. Eloquent storytelling that doesn't hold back on the nasty bits." -Aron Beauregard, award-winning author of Playground

"With a zesty heroine, a likeable style, and a touch of grue, Selene Shade: Resurrectionist for Hire is the first installment in what looks to be a tremendously enjoyable series of dark thrillers. I ate it up like a zombie with a fresh plate of brains and am already hungry for more." -Poppy Z. Brite, author of Exquisite Corpse