Coming on November 18, 2025, a new Mennik Thorn story: The Dead Man.
It’s been a while since the final novel in the Mennik Thorn series, Legacy of a Hated God was published, and now it’s time to plunge back in to Nik Thorn’s chaotic world. Taking place about a month before the events of Shadow of a Dead God, The Dead Man is a prequel novella, a chance to see what Nik’s life was like before he got caught up into the city-threatening evens of Shadow of a Dead God. Hint: Nik is just as chaotic as ever.
Here’s the book blurb:
Becoming a mage-for-hire hasn’t quite turned out the way Nik Thorn hoped.
Sometimes you just have to take whatever job is on offer, whether it’s a missing pet, a curse to break, or tracking down a cheating husband. And sometimes it turns out to be something else altogether.
And if theft, murder, and blackmail aren’t enough, there’s a high mage involved.
It’s publication day. LEGACY OF A HATED GOD, the final Mennik Thorn novel, is out in the world, waiting for you – yes, you! – to read it.
There have been four books in this series, SHADOW OF A DEAD GOD, NECTAR FOR THE GOD, STRANGE CARGON, and now LEGACY OF A HATED GOD. I’ve spent four years in the company of Nik and his friends, but now it’s finally time to leave them.
The first reviews have already come in for the book, and I’m delighted to say that they’ve been unanimously gushing. Thank you, reviewers!
“It’s always bittersweet reaching the climax of a series, and even more so when it has one of your favourite characters, and there is always that question of how everything is going to be wrapped up.
“Brilliantly, as it transpires.
“Legacy of a Hated God encapsulates everything that has made this series so great but turns it up yet another notch.”
– Rowena Andrews, Beneath a Thousand Skies
“Hold onto your hats, kids, this is going to be a rave.
“This is the final Mennik Thorn novel. I’m sad to see the series end, but wow, did it go out with a bang! Legacy of a Hated God took everything I loved about the previous books (and there is a lot to love) and dialed it right up to eleven.”
– Jodie Crump, Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub
“The Mennik Thorn series comes to an end in the best, most epic of ways!
“Go get this book. You will not regret it.”
– Phil Parker, fantasy author and reviewer
To everyone who has joined me on this journey, thank you! And to those of you still on the road, I’ll see you at the end!
In just two days, on November 2, 2023, Legacy of a Hated God, the final Mennik Thorn novel, will be out in the world.
The ebook, paperback, and hardcover will all be available on the same day (although paperback will be Amazon only for a while as it will take a couple of weeks to work its way out to the other stores; sorry).
The early reviews have been fantastic. I am so grateful to everyone who has read the book and shared their opinions, and I look forward to hearing what everyone else thought!
Let’s take a look at how the hardcover actually looks. Here’s the front cover:
And the full-wrap dustjacket:
The naked inner cover, so you can get a good look at the art without all that annoying text on top of it:
And, finally, the first page of the story as it appears in the hardcover:
If you’re looking at this on a big screen like I am, those images are probably giant, so sorry about that!
If you haven’t pre-ordered the book yet, you can still get the ebook at the special, reduced pre-order price right now:
LEGACY OF A HATED GOD is the final Mennik Thorn book. With its publication in November 2, 2023, the Mennik Thorn series will be complete! The cover is now public, but if you’ve missed it, here it is in full glory:
The art is, as with all books in this series, by Ömer Burak Önal.
Here’s the book description:
Nik Thorn should know better than to get involved with gods.
But when a priest of a hated god asks Nik to save his life, Nik can hardly refuse, particularly when the priest knows exactly how, where, when, and why he is going to be killed. How hard can it be?
Of course, that’s not Nik’s only problem. When is it ever? A god has been murdered, the city’s high mages are about to go to war, and fury is rising in the streets.
Agatos will burn.
And here’s the full wrap-around paperback cover:
There will, of course, also be a hardcover.
You can pre-order the book right now and benefit from the cheaper pre-order price, all the way up to publication day.
Hey, Patrick. Did you entirely forget to post the new cover for SHADOW OF A DEAD GOD? Yes. Yes, you did. Nice going.
So, yes, earlier this month the first Mennik Thorn book, Shadow of a Dead God, got a shiny new cover. It’s had a couple of covers before, the first being one I designed myself, the second a very nice piece of art that I commissioned from Ömer Burak Önal.
But, time went on, the next couple of books were released, again with art from Ömer, and the cover of Shadow no longer matched the covers of its sequels. So, I went back to Ömer and asked him for a new piece of art for Shadow. And, if you haven’t seen it already, here it is in its full glory:
And here is what it looks like with the covers for the other two books.
I hope you agree that this looks more in keeping as a series.
Here’s the wraparound cover for the paperback, too.
Oh, and here are the three versions of the cover as paperbacks next to each other.
Coming up soon, I’ll have a cover reveal for the final Mennik Thorn book, LEGACY OF A HATED GOD. And this time I won’t forget to post it here!
The new Mennik Thorn novel, STRANGE CARGO, is now available to pre-order. It will be published on July 29, 2022, but if you order it now, it will be waiting for you on publication day. Pre-orders are really helpful for authors, because they raise the profile of our books, so if you are thinking about getting this book, grab it now!
Blurb
What do a smuggling gang, a curse that won’t go away, and a frequently lost dog have to do with each other?
Answer: they’re all here to disrupt Mennik Thorn’s hard-earned peace and quiet.
As the sole freelance mage in the city of Agatos, Mennik is used to some odd clients and awful jobs. But this time, one of his clients isn’t giving him a choice. Mennik might have forgotten about the smugglers whose operations he disrupted, but they haven’t forgotten about him. Now he is faced with a simple ultimatum: help them smuggle in an unknown, dangerous cargo or live his life in fear of their revenge.
Time is running out for Mennik to find an answer, and things are about to get completely out of control.
I entirely failed to mention in this blog that my latest novel, NECTAR FOR THE GOD, had been published. This was the latest instalment of my MENNIK THORN epic fantasy mystery series. And, yes, it’s out, it has been published, and it’s doing great, so thank you to everyone who has bought it, despite me failing to mention it in the blog…
Here’s the blurb:
In the city of Agatos, nothing stays buried forever.
Only an idiot would ignore his debt to a high mage, and Mennik Thorn is not an idiot, no matter what anyone might say. He’s just been … distracted. But now he’s left it too late, and if he doesn’t obey the high mage’s commands within the day, his best friends’ lives will be forfeit. So it’s hardly the time to take on an impossible case: proving a woman who murdered a stranger in full view is innocent.
Unfortunately, Mennik can’t resist doing the right thing – and now he’s caught in a deadly rivalry between warring high mages, his witnesses are dying, and something ancient has turned its eyes upon him.
The fate of the city is once again in the hands of a second-rate mage. Mennik Thorn should have stayed in hiding.
The book is available in ebook and paperback from Amazon and in hardcover from most stores.
But NECTAR FOR THE GOD isn’t the only new thing I’ve got out. I’ve also released a short story in Nik’s world, called THE WORD FOR FRIEND IS DEATH, which you can get for free by subscribing to my newsletter.
And I’ve repackaged and redesigned my two THE CASEBOOK OF HARRIET GEORGE novellas, because honestly the covers weren’t up to standard. You can get these in ebook anywhere and in paperback from Amazon.
Like I said, I should have my blogging privileges revoked. Honestly, if you want to hear regularly from me about writing, books, and so on, the best way to do that is by subscribing to my newsletter, which is regularly sent out. Alternatively, if all you want is to hear when my new books come out, you can apparently do that by following my profile on BookBub or Amazon US or Amazon UK.
Those of you waiting for a sequel to SHADOW OF A DEAD GOD have had to wait a while, I’m afraid. Of course it’s no secret as to why after the last 18 months! But at last NECTAR FOR THE GOD is available to be pre-ordered, and I can’t wait to share it with you
Here’s the blurb:
In the city of Agatos, nothing stays buried forever.
Only an idiot would ignore his debt to a high mage, and Mennik Thorn is not an idiot, no matter what anyone might say. He’s just been … distracted. But now he’s left it too late, and if he doesn’t obey the high mage’s commands within the day, his best friends’ lives will be forfeit. So it’s hardly the time to take on an impossible case: proving a woman who murdered a stranger in full view is innocent.
Unfortunately, Mennik can’t resist doing the right thing – and now he’s caught in a deadly rivalry between warring high mages, his witnesses are dying, and something ancient has turned its eyes upon him.
The fate of the city is once again in the hands of a second-rate mage. Mennik Thorn should have stayed in hiding.
NECTAR FOR THE GOD will be published on December 2, 2021, and you can pre-order it now.
Right now, the book is at a special preorder price, but it won’t stay that way forever!
SHADOW OF A DEAD GOD has made it through to the final round of the 2020 Booknest Fantasy Awards in the self-published category. It’s up against some of the biggest names of self-published fantasy, so if you enjoyed it, please give it a vote and let’s see if we can keep up with them!
It’s publication day for my fantasy short story collection, AT THE GATES AND OTHER STORIES.
I didn’t set out to be a short story writer. I always thought I would write novels (and I do, of course), but there is something irresistible in the perfection of a whole story contained in a short, well-crafted package. It’s the glint of sunlight that hints at an ocean, a single flower instead of a whole garden.
Most of my short stories were written in a ten year period between 2001 and 2011, although I’ve continued to write the occasional short story since, and this collection includes one story, Slipper of Glass, that was written in 2020 and has never been published anywhere else.
I’ve been really lucky with my stories. They’ve been published in a whole range of professional magazines and anthologies, from Interzone and Strange Horizons to Realms of Fantasy and The Year’s Best Fantasy, but this is the first time that I’ve gathered what I think are the sixteen best in a single volume.
I love these stories, and I hope you will, too. You can buy the collection as an ebook pretty much anywhere that sells ebooks, and you can buy a paperback version via Amazon.
This collection contains sixteen stories, with about 70,000 words of fiction. I hope there will be some stories in there that you love as much as I do.
