Candle & Crow Cover Reveal
It’s here and it's gorgeous! Candle & Crow is the third book in the Ink & Sigil series and the last novel in the Iron Druid universe. (I’ll continue to write novellas and short stories, but this is the last novel.) As such, we not only wrap things up for Al, Buck, and Nadia, but we get final farewells to Atticus, Oberon & Starbuck, Granuaile and Orlaith, and Archdruid Owen Kennedy. Here’s more about it:
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Iron Druid Chronicles comes the final book in the “action-packed, enchantingly fun” (Booklist) Ink & Sigil series, as an ink-slinging wizard pursues the answer to a very personal mystery: Who cast a pair of curses on his head?
Al MacBharrais has a most unusual job: He’s a practitioner of ink-and-sigil magic, tasked with keeping order among the gods and monsters that dwell hidden in the human world. But there’s one supernatural mystery he’s never been able to solve: Years ago, someone cast twin curses on him that killed off his apprentices and drove away loved ones who heard him speak, leaving him bereft and isolated.
But he’s not quite alone: As Al works to solve this mystery, his friends draw him into their own eccentric dramas. Buck Foi the hobgoblin has been pondering his own legacy—and has a plan for a daring shenanigan that will make him the most celebrated hobgoblin of all. Nadia, goth queen and battle seer, is creating her own cult around a god who loves whisky and cheese.
And the Morrigan, a former Irish death goddess, has decided she wants not only to live as an ordinary woman but also to face the most perilous challenge of the mortal world: online dating.
Meanwhile, Al crosses paths with old friends and new—including some beloved Druids and their very good dogs—in his globe-trotting quest to solve the mystery of his curses. But he’s pulled in so many different directions by his colleagues, a suspicious detective, and the whims of destructive gods that Al begins to wonder: Will he ever find time to write his own happy ending?
HECK YES. Ready for more HECK YES? Here’s the cover with outstanding hand-drawn art by Sarah J. Coleman (@Inkymole on social media).
Mash that button above for five kajillion good karma points—it’ll take you to a landing page with a bunch of vendor links for whichever format you prefer. Preorders are gifts to your future self. If you preorder today, October You will look back at March You and say, “DANG, March Me, thanks so much for thinking of my happiness and giving me something perfect to read!”
But can we talk some more about the cover?
Those little symbols inside the letters that form CROW? Those are sigils taken from actual sarcophagi in the Glasgow Necropolis, which is the setting for a couple of chapters in the novel.
And the actual crow with red eyes? Y’all ought to know who THAT is if you’ve read the series up to this point. She’s been such a delight to write—so many personal struggles to overcome despite her powers.
How about those two figures in the middle, between the words? They’re SIRENS! “Hold on, Kevin,” you may ask, but probably not in these exact words, “why don’t they look like sex fish? I thought sirens were hot mermaids.” Well, I went off on exactly that topic over at Chuck Wendig’s blog in a post called “The Sirens Were Never Your Sex Fish,” devoting some crunchy geek time to why the sirens were originally bird women who offered knowledge. They gradually became horny piscine temptresses in the medieval period because the Church was always looking for a way to demonize sex and vilify women who wanted a good time. Allowing the sirens to remain women who did what they wanted and knew a lot of amazing shit didn’t fit their narrative, so they changed it.
And what about stuff that ISN’T on the cover? Well, there’s a little bit of Scottish lore that I completely geeked out about and included in the book and I talk about that over on my blog, Writer’s Grove, if you want a lesson in obscure mythology.
Hope y’all enjoy, and many, many, many thanks for sharing and spreading the word. Just getting the signal out there is the toughest thing these days. Let’s do a giveaway, eh?
Share my cover out there with the preorder link from the button above and tag me in your post and you’re entered in a contest to win a signed copy from me when I get my author copies (usually a couple of weeks before the publication date). Open to US and Canada. I’ll look for your posts on Bluesky and Threads, which is where I’m mostly at these days, so we’ll have two winners: One for Bluesky (tag @kevinhearne.bsky.social) and one for Threads (tag @kevinhearne).
Answers to Anticipated Questions:
Q: When is the audiobook coming out?
A: Same day as the print and ebook, Oct. 1, and you can preorder now!
Q: Will the audiobook be narrated by Luke Daniels?
A: HECK YES
Q: Are you going on tour?
A: ALSO HECK YES. But other than the Poisoned Pen in Arizona and Perfect Books in Ottawa, I have nothing solid yet in terms of locations.
You’ll be able to preorder signed copies from any of the stores on my tour. The Poisoned Pen in Arizona is great for U.S. and the world, Perfect Books in Ottawa is great for Canada.
New bookplates!
You guys, with artist Galen Dara’s permission, I made some Oberon bookplates to go along with my Ink & Sigil bookplates. So if you ever want them, they’re available if you can’t get a signed copy of my books but would like my signature in a book you have. LOOKIT
I sent a whole bunch of these to The Poisoned Pen in Arizona, and if you grab a copy of CANINES & COCKTAILS from them, they’ll throw it in there for free, as you’ll see on their order page right here. (If you missed what CANINES & COCKTAILS is, it’s a collection of three novellas featuring dogs and drinks from me, Chuck Wendig, and Delilah S. Dawson. It has Oberon’s Meaty Mystery #4, THE CHARTREUSE CHANTEUSE, which is the happy-ever-after for Atticus O’Sullivan, and it takes place during the same weekend that CANDLE & CROW begins, so you should totally read it before CANDLE & CROW if you like Atticus and Oberon.)
Should you want one of these bookplates just for the giggles, there’s a form to fill out on my site. Just head over to kevinhearne.com and look for the bit that says Signed Bookplates.
New editions
Out this week or early next: Print editions of all of Oberon’s Meaty Mysteries. These have been a long time coming! The reason it took so long is because the rights to the first two books were tied up elsewhere, but now that I have the rights returned, you can get them! You’ll be able to order them from anywhere that has access to Ingram, so that means pretty much any indie bookstore, and you can also grab them on Barnes & Noble and Amazon and such once they appear. Just do a title search at the end of this week/early next week and you should be able to find them. If you want to order any/all from Perfect Books in Ottawa and request that they be signed, you can do that! Here’s what the covers look like plus the title pages where I would sign—I love ‘em! The series order is: 1) The Purloined Poodle, 2) The Squirrel on the Train, 3) The Buzz Kill (in Death & Honey), and 4) The Chartreuse Chanteuse (in Canines & Cocktails).
All the art for these covers was done by the peerless Galen Dara. Super geeked that these all have a consistent look now.
Okay, enough about me. Other people write books too! Here’s what I’m reading right now—and my links go to bookshop.org because yay small businesses, but of course you can find these books anywhere.
A Stranger in Olondria
This has been highly recommended to me from several sources so I’m gonna trust my peeps and read the heck out of it. Plus it won three awards, so that’s some fancy stuff and I feel fancy right now.
The Siege of Burning Grass
Okay, like, everyone is freaking out about this right now (in a good way) on my socials, so I have to see what the heck everyone is talking about, right? PLUS THERE IS A BIRD PERSON ON THE COVER
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