Traitor's Blade

When every noble is a tyrant and every knight is a thug, the only thing you can really trust is a traitor's blade. The Three Musketeers meets Joe Abercrombie via Mark Lawrence: 'Guaranteed to increase household swashbuckling by 100%,' says Library JournalThe Greatcoats - legendary heroes, arbiters of justice . . . or notorious traitors? The Greatcoats are travelling magistrates bringing justice to all . . . or at least they were, before they watched the Dukes impale their King's head on a spike. Now the land's heroes are reviled as traitors, their Greatcoats in tatters.'One hell of a good book' - Conn Iggulden, author of the Sunday Times Top Five bestseller The Gates of AthensFacio, Kest and Brasti have been reduced to working as mercenaries, but when they find their employer dead - and are forced to watch as the killer plants evidence framing them for the murder - they realise things are about to get even worse.For the royal conspiracy that began with overthrowing an idealistic young king is spreading to Rijou, the most corrupt city in the land, and the life of a young girl hangs in the balance.When every noble is a tyrant and every knight is a thug, the only thing you can really trust is a traitor's blade.

One hell of a good book, Fantastic from the first sentence to the last. Combining old-school swashbuckling action with contemporary characters and a good dose of grit, these books are the rarest of things, great rollicking fun combined with an emotional punch . . . Sebastien, write faster!, An energetic, fun adventure that puts the "musk" back in "musketeer." Guaranteed to increase household swashbuckling by 100%., Each bloody encounter [is] described with meticulous detail . . . Traitor's Blade is the entertaining story of how the greatcoats rose and fell, and how they could rise again, With a tip of his hat at Alexandre Dumas, Sebastien de Castell make a fine first impression in this entertaining debut . . . Traitor's Blade is a bunch of fun from one cover to the other

Sebastien de Castell had just finished a degree in Archaeology when he started work on his first dig. Four hours later he realised how much he actually hated archaeology and left to pursue a very focused career as a musician, ombudsman, interaction designer, fight choreographer, teacher, project manager, actor and product strategist. His only defence against the charge of unbridled dilettantism is that he genuinely likes doing these things and that, in one way or another, each of these fields plays a role in his writing. He sternly resists the accusation of being a Renaissance Man in the hopes that more people will label him that way. Sebastien's acclaimed swashbuckling fantasy series The Greatcoats was shortlisted for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fantasy. the Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Debut, the Prix Imaginales for Best Foreign Work and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His YA fantasy series Spellslinger was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and is published in more than a dozen languages.Sebastien lives in Vancouver, Canada with his lovely wife and two belligerent cats.