Heart Readers - Softcover

Twin princes—the curse of King Pardu’s line. Pardu killed his own twin to secure the throne. Now Pardu, dying, wants to use old magic to determine which of his sons will rule—without murder. The old magic calls for heart readers to determine which twin has the pure heart. But the heart readers must work in teams—female teams. And the team chosen by the palace has a history, a violent history, a history that makes these two women unsuitable to choose the next heir. Or maybe that history makes the heart readers the only ones who know the truth... “A novel I enjoyed hugely—vivid characters, real emotions, a real page-turner.” —Interzone “Compelling...(Rusch) pushes the narrative along at a galloping pace. A fine example in novel form of the old Hollywood adage: ‘A good script needs three things...story, story, story.’” —The Dark Side (England)

New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award. Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award. She writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson, romantic suspense as Kristine Dexter, and futuristic sf as Kris DeLake. She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own. To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.