WHAT MAKES A VILLAIN?

WHAT MAKES A VILLAIN?

The Deepest Poison

By BETH CATO

(Harper Voyager Impulse | on-sale 4/28/2015 | eISBN: 9780062411242 | $.99)

Beth Cato burst onto the steampunk scene in September of 2014 with The Clockwork Dagger, and she blew away fans, critics, and fellow authors with her thoughtful, unique blend of steampunk technology and real world science. Octavia Leander was a character that readers grew to love: a preternaturally gifted medician, equally skilled in non-magic medical science as she is in supernatural healing arts. In The Clockwork Dagger, we saw how her incredible abilities drove a wedge between her and her peers, even between her and her mentor and surrogate mother, Miss Percival. But now, in The Deepest Poison (on-sale 4/28), Beth Cato is asking one of the most telling questions in speculative fiction: what makes a villain?

Told from the point of view of Miss Percival—a supremely gifted medician in her own right—The Deepest Poison takes place several months before the events of The Clockwork Dagger, on the front lines of the seemingly endless war between Caskentia and the Waste. Where Octavia apparently has a direct line to the goddess known as the Lady, explaining her extreme abilities, Miss Percival has years of experience and no small ability of her own. But will that be enough? Already, Octavia’s skills outstripe her own, and it’s only a matter of time before others start to realize it…

For those who have not yet partaken of the steampunk fantasy delights wrought by Beth Cato, The Deepest Poison is a perfect jumping on point. It can be taken as a thought-provoking stand alone, or a fascinating companion novelette to Cato’s critically acclaimed Clockwork Dagger duology.


About the Book:

Octavia Leander, a young healer with incredible powers, has found her place among Miss Percival’s medicians-in-training. Called to the front lines of a never-ending war between Caskentia and the immoral Wasters, the two women must uncover the source of a devastating illness that is killing thousands of soldiers. But when Octavia’s natural talents far outshine her teacher’s, jealousy threatens to destroy their relationship-as time runs out to save the encampment.

About the Author:

Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in a lair outside of Phoenix, Arizona. She shares the household with a hockey-loving husband, a number-obsessed son, and a cat the size of a canned ham.