Johannes Cabal, a necromancer of some little infamy, has come into possession of a vital clue that may lead him to his ultimate goal: a cure for death. The path is vague, however, and certainly treacherous as it takes him into strange territories that, quite literally, no one has ever seen before. The task is too dangerous to venture upon alone, so he must seek assistance, comrades for the coming travails.
So assisted--ably and otherwise--by his vampiric brother, Horst, and by the kindly accompaniment of a criminologist and a devil, he will encounter ruins and diableries, mystery and murder, the depths of the lowest pit and a city of horrors. London, to be exact.
Yet even though Cabal has risked such peril believing he understands the dangers he faces, he is still underestimating them. He is walking into a trap of such arcane complexity that even the one who drew him there has no idea of its true terrors. As the snare closes slowly and subtly around them, it may be that there will be no survivors at all.
The Fall of the House of Cabal is the fifth book in Jonathan L. Howard's acclaimed Johannes Cabal series.
"Fans of Howard's witty prose and morbid humor will not be disappointed; his characteristic blend of horror, comedy, fantasy, and drama is particularly effective in this installment. Cabal remains an entertaining antihero whose complexities have deepened over time, and the conclusion of the narrative threads that have spanned the previous four Cabal books is both satisfying and touching." --Publishers Weekly
"Howard makes it look easy to paint a soul-stealing, murdering necromancer as a sympathetic character; that, folks, is worth the price of admission." --San Diego Union-Tribune
"Howard is a supremely talented writer and the Johannes Cabal series makes for superb reading. It would be easy at this point to say if you like Rankin or Fforde or Pratchett or Holt, then you will love these books, but while it may well be true, it would be doing Howard a disservice." --Sci-Fi-London
"Howard's Dreamlands will thrill fans of H.P. Lovecraft, but Cabal leaves a permanent mark on even the most fluid of landscapes, and Howard's writing shines, sketching out a personality both fascinating and heartbreaking." --BookGeeks
"Cabal, the detective and necromancer, is full of charismatic amorality, making him both a classical and refreshing antihero." --Time Out Chicago
"Jonathan L. Howard has such an effortless way with monsters and the undead that you might suspect him of being, like his creation, Johannes Cabal, a necromancer. The series is addictive." --Richard Kadrey, author of the Sandman Slim series
"In the vein of the comic horror-fantasies of Tom Holt and Christopher Moore but substantially weirder." --Booklist
"Johannes Cabal would kill me for saying this, but he's my favorite zeppelin-hopping detective. The fellow has got all the charm of Bond and the smarts of Holmes--without the pesky morality." --Daniel H. Wilson, author of Robopocalypse
"An ensemble cast performing at their incandescent best... Witty, wickedly funny..."
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Cassandra Khaw, author of Food of the Gods
