Barbara's Blog

  And, two more EXCELLENT reviews for One Extra Corpse, which will be released a week after Iron Princess. (I'm sorry - it just worked out that way!) Starred Review in Booklist: In this sequel to the excellent Scandal in Babylon (2021), it’s been several months since the recently widowed Emma Blackstone came to Hollywood from Britain and promptly extricated her new employer, the famous movie star Kitty Flint, from a murder charge. Now, in May 1924, Emma feels like her new life in Tinseltown might finally be calming down. Until film director Ernst Zapolya, who happens to be one of Kitty’s (many) former lovers, says he has a problem only Kitty can solve. And Kitty can’t possibly do anything without Emma’s help. Hambly, who’s known primarily for a series of novels featuring the nineteenth-century sleuth Benjamin January (although she’s published in multiple genres), knocks this second in her Silver Screen series out of the park. Everything feels just right: the characters are abundant...

  The Iron Princess - my first fantasy novel in 16 years - will be available February 28: pre-order on Amazon is available now. It's a story I've worked on, on and off, for almost ten years, and I'm delighted that it's finally going to see print. As I think I've said before, it involves Princess Clyaris - Clea, known to her friends and followers as the Iron Princess (in contrast to her older sister, the Golden Princess) - and her complicated battle against not only otherworld monstrosities, but her own family. Like Queen Elizabeth I, she has to pick her way around the debris of her father's matrimonial chaos while trying to figure out who is responsible for the appearance of these deadly - and rapidly multiplying - creatures, when it may in fact be Dear Old Dad... or somebody who's using him as a pawn. The fact that she has to blackmail the most evil wizard in the world into working for her doesn't help matters. Fingers crossed!