Creatures of Will and Temper

By: Molly Tanzer | Series:The Diabolist’s Library

A delightful, dark, and entertaining romp . . . Molly Tanzer is at the top of her form in this beautifully constructed novel. Jeff VanderMeer, best-selling author of the Southern Reach trilogy

Victorian London is a place of fluid social roles, vibrant arts culture, fin-de-sicle wonders . . . and dangerous underground diabolic cults. Fencer Evadne Gray cares for none of the former and knows nothing of the latter when shes sent to London to chaperone her younger sister, aspiring art critic Dorina.

At loose ends after Dorina becomes enamored with their uncles friend, Lady Henrietta Henry Wotton, a local aristocrat and aesthete, Evadne enrolls in a fencing school. There, she meets George Cantrell, an experienced fencing master shes always dreamed of studying under. But soon, George shows her something more than fancy footworkhe reveals to Evadne a secret, hidden world of devilish demons and their obedient servants. George has dedicated himself to eradicating demons and diabolists alike, and now he needs Evadnes help. But as she learns more, Evadne begins to believe that Lady Henry might actually be a diabolist . . . and even worse, she suspects Dorina might have become one too.

Combining swordplay, the supernatural, sapphic romance, and Victorian high society, Creatures of Will and Temper reveals a familiar but strange London in a riff on Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray that readers won’t soon forget.

An artful, witty, Oscar Wilde pastiche with the heart of a paranormal thriller. Diana Gabaldon, best-selling author of Outlander