Compelling Tale Publishing

Older recommendations

A Drop of Corruption

by Robert Jackson Bennett ​

A cautionary tale about monarchs in this age of would-be kings. Read the Amazon review:

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  In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, a Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—vanishing from a room within a heavily guarded tower, its door and windows locked from the inside.
  To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial detective, the great Ana Dolabra.    At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.
  Ana soon discovers that they are investigating not a disappearance but a murder—and one of surpassing cunning, carried out by an opponent who can pass through warded doors like a ghost.
  Worse still, the killer may be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud, where the Empire harvests fallen titans for the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.
  Din has seen his superior solve impossible cases before. But as the death toll grows and their quarry predicts each of Ana’s moves with uncanny foresight, he fears that she has at last met an enemy she can’t defeat.

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Sir Hereward & Mr. Fitz  Garth Nix

The Lost War  Justin Anders

The Magician’s Daughter  H. G. Parry

The Armour of Light  Ken Follet

The Martyr  Anthony Ryan

The Tyranny of Faith  Richard Swan

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies  Heather Fawcett

Blade of Dream  Daniel Abraham

Clockwork Boys  T. Kingfisher

The Wonder Engine  T. Kingfisher

The Tainted Cup  Robert Jackson Bennet

Swordheart  T. Kingfisher

Blackwing  Ed McDonald

Ravencry  Ed McDonald

The Ember Blade  Chris Wooding

Twenty Years Later  Charlie Donlea

Navola  Paulo Bacigalupi

Dark Water Daughter  H.M. Long

A Murder of Magpies  Judith Flanders

A Tide of Black Steel  Anthony Ryan

The Proof of My Innocence  Jonathan Coe

The Raven Scholar  Antonia Hodgson

Once Was Willem  M.R. Carey

Sword Catcher  Cassandra Clare

The Ragpicker King  Cassandra Clare

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The Traitor  Anthony Ryan

A Death In Denmark  Amulya Malladi

Suspect  Scott Turow

Blade Breaker  Victoria Aveyard

Age of Ash  Daniel Abraham

Alias Emma  Ava Glass

The Sword Defiant  Gareth Hanrahan

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The Mask of Mirrors ⚔️

M. A. Carrick

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Ren is a liar and a thief, a pattern-reader and a daughter of no clan. Raised in the slums of Nadežra, she fled that world to save her sister. Now, she has returned with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house, securing her fortune and her sister’s future.

But in the city of dreams, her masquerade is just one of many. Enigmatic crime lord Derossi Vargo, stony captain of the guard Grey Serrado, dashing heir Leato Traementis, and the legendary vigilante known as the Rook all have secrets that could unravel her own.

And as corrupt nightmare magic begins to weave its way through the city of dreams, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled—with Ren at their heart.

The Thousand Eyes ⚔️

A. K. Larkwood

Kagen the Damned ⚔️

Jonathan Maberry

The Godbreaker ⚔️

​Mike Brooks

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Empire of Exiles ⚔️

Erin M. Evans 

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Sorcerer's Edge ⚔

David Hair

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Amazon Review:  After all they've suffered, rebel sorcerer Raythe Vyre and his fortune-seekers are still empty-handed, but they've found real treasure: peace.
     Deep inside the Ice wastes, Raythe's people stumbled upon Rath Argentium, the legendary Aldar city, and the long-lost Tangato people. After fighting through betrayal, treachery and powerful magic, they forged a hard-won treaty with the Tangato and their extraordinary queen, Shiazar. Now they've put aside their dreams of wealth and revenge and embraced something better: a life outside the tyrannical Bolgravian Empire.
     But the Bolgravian Empire never gives up.
     The empire hasn't forgotten Raythe Vyre, and his enemies know where he is. Guided by Toran Zorne, the implacable imperial assassin, they are coming to claim Rath Argentium for themselves. Raythe and Shiazar know all too well that courage and cunning won't be enough this time: they are outnumbered, out-gunned and out of time.
     Faced with total annihilation, it's up to Raythe to find an edge . . .

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Mercy 🔎

David Baldacci

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The King's Traitor ⚔ 

Jeff Wheeler

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An Unintended Voyage ⚔

Marshall Ryan Maresca

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The Bladed Faith ⚔

David Dalglish 

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Nettle And Bone ⚔

T. Kingfisher

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A Time Of Courage ⚔

John Gwynne

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The Thief's Daughter ⚔ 

Jeff Wheeler

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The Justice of Kings ⚔

Richard Swan

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The House of Cats and Gulls ⚔

Stephen Deas 

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The Moonsteel Crown ⚔

Stephen Deas

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Amazon Review:  The Emperor of Aria has been murdered, the Empire is in crisis, and Dead Men walk the streets, but Myla, Fings, and Seth couldn't care less. They're too busy just trying to survive in the Sulk-struck city of Varr, committing petty violence and pettier crimes to earn their keep in the Unrulys, a motley gang led by Blackhand.When the Unrulys are commissioned to steal a mysterious item to order, by an equally mysterious patron, the trio are thrust right into the bitter heart of a struggle for the Crown, where every faction is after what they have.Forced to lie low in a city on lockdown, they will have to work together if they want to save their skins... and maybe just save the Empire as well.

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Sixteen Ways To Defend A Walled City ⚔

K. J. Parker

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The Wolf Of Oren-Yaro ⚔ 

K.S. Villoso

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How To Rule An Empire and

Get Away With It ⚔

K. J. Parker

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A Practical Guide To Conquering

The World ⚔

K. J. Parker

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The Unwilling ⚔

Kelly Braffet

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The 6:20 Man 

David Baldacci 🔎

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The Apollo Murders

Chris Hadfield 🔎

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Silver Queendom ⚔

Dan Koboldt

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The Queen's Poisoner ⚔

Jeff Wheeler

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The Splinter King ⚔

Mike Brooks

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Publisher’s Weekly Review:  Mike Brooks delivers an outstanding tale of honor, religion, politics, and crime in his second Chronicles of the God-King fantasy (after The Black Coast). In East Harbour, capital of the island realm of Kiburu ce Alaba, street kid Jeya continues to help the last surviving child of the Splinter King, who has taken the name Bulang, to hide from the assassins who killed Bulang’s family—but now someone is targeting Jeya’s friends and allies. In southernmost Narida, Daimon and his new raider wife, Saana, rule over the combined peoples of his Black Keep and her Brown Eagle Clan as a contingent of their rivals from Darkspur come to visit. Meanwhile, Daimon’s foster brother, Darel, travels with the Southern Marshal to the Naridan capital, Idramar, to face the judgment of God-King Natan III, even as Natan’s sister, Tila, faces her own justice for murdering Narida’s Lord Admiral. And in the background, rumors mount that the god Nari has been reborn. Brooks throws in pirates, treachery, witchcraft, combat, and dragons to create a whirlwind of drama and intrigue.

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A Time Of Blood ⚔

John Gwynne

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World's Edge ⚔ 

David Hair

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The Pariah ⚔

Anthony Ryan

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The Stone Knife ⚔

Anna Stephens

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A Time Of Dread

John Gwynne

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From the Amazon description:

     A race of warrior angels, the Ben-Elim, once vanquished a mighty demon horde. Now they rule the Banished lands, but their peace is brutally enforced.

In the south, hotheaded Riv is desperate to join the Ben-Elim's peacekeeping force, until she unearths a deadly secret.

     In the west, the giantess Sig investigates demon sightings and discovers signs of an uprising and black magic.

And in the snowbound north, Drem, a trapper, finds mutilated corpses in the forests. The work of a predator, or something far darker?

     It's a time of shifting loyalties and world-changing dangers. Difficult choices need to be made. Because in the shadows, demons are gathering, waiting for their time to rise. . .

 

​Nolyn

Michael J. Sullivan

 

The New Climate War

Michael E. Mann

 

Find You First

Linwood Barclay

 

The Wisdom of Crowds

Joe Abercrombie

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The Black Coast

Mike Brooks

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From the Amazon description:

War Dragons. Fearsome Raiders. A Daemonic Warlord on the Rise.  

When the citizens of Black Keep see ships on the horizon, terror takes them because they know who is coming: for generations, the keep has been raided by the fearsome clanspeople of Tjakorsha. Saddling their war dragons, Black Keep's warriors rush to defend their home only to discover that the clanspeople have not come to pillage at all. Driven from their own land by a daemonic despot who prophesises the end of the world, the raiders come in search of a new home . . .

 

Daylight

David Baldacci

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Sorcery of a Queen

Brian Naslund

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The Blacktongue Thief 

Christopher Buehlman

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The Frozen Crown

Greta Kelly

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Blood of an Exile

Brian Naslund

Bershad stands apart from the world, the most legendary dragonslayer in history, both revered and reviled. Once, he was Lord Silas Bershad, but after a disastrous failure on the battlefield he was stripped of his titles and sentenced to one violent, perilous hunt after another. Now he lives only to stalk dragons, slaughter them, collect their precious oil, and head back into the treacherous wilds once more. For years, death was his only chance to escape. But that is about to change. The king who sentenced Bershad to his fate has just given him an unprecedented chance at redemption. Kill a foreign emperor and walk free forever. The journey will take him across dragon-infested mountains, through a seedy criminal underworld, and into a forbidden city guarded by deadly technology.

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The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry

C.M. Waggoner

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News of the World

Paulette Jiles

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The Professionals

Owen Laukkanen

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An Innocent Client

Scott Pratt

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Map's Edge

David Hair

Follow a renegade sorcerer off the edge of the map

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Unnatural Magic

C.M. Waggoner

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The Once and Future Witches

Alix E. Harrow 

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Elevator Pitch

Linwood Barclay

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Life

Keith Richards

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Call Of The Bone Ships

RJ Barker

In this fantasy world, life upon the ocean is everything

and everyone revolves around it. Condemned to the Black Ships,

and duty until death, Lucky Meas nevertheless has the ambition

to make plans of her own.

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Burn

Patrick Ness

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The Boy From The Woods

Harlan Coben

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Warlord

Bernard Cornwell

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The Evening and the Morning

Ken Follet

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Fair Warning

Michael Connelly

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The Trouble With Peace

Joe Abercrombie

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The Red Stained Wings

Elizabeth Bear

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Marilia The Warlord

Morgan Cole

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The Bone Shard Daughter

Andrea Stewart

 

In The Kingdom of All Tomorrows

Stephen R. Lawhead

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The Unspoken Name

AK Larkwood

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Long Road To Mercy

David Baldacci

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The Guardians

John Grisham

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Torn

Rowenna Miller

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Bright Steel

Miles Cameron

 

Mother of Demons

David Hair

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An Anonymous Girl

Greer Hendricks

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The Ruin of Kings

Jenn Lyons

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Sword of Kings

Bernard Cornwell

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A Little Hatred

Joe Abercrombie

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Dark Forge

Miles Cameron

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Hearts of Ice

David Hair

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Cari Mora

Thomas Harris

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The Stone in the Skull

Elizabeth Bear