Princess of Wands
Beginning a new series by the
New York Times best-selling author
JOHN RINGO—
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES MEET KILLER DEMONS!
Special: distinguished by some unusual quality . . .
Circumstances: a piece of evidence that indicates the
probability or improbability of an event . . .
Barbara Everette, homemaker living in a small town in
Mississippi, had the perfect life. Perfect husband, perfect children,
perfect house, perfect Christian Faith. She cooked and cleaned perfectly
and managed all of the chores of the modern suburbanite, toting the
kids, running the PTA, teaching kung-fu in the local dojo . . .
Perfectly. But perfection has a price and the day came when Barbara
snapped. She simply had to have "one weekend off." God had to grant her
that much. It said no where that she was a slave. Waving goodbye to her
hapless, entirely undomestic husband, she set out on the quest for a
weekend of peace and maybe some authentic Cajun food.
Detective Sergeant Kelly Lockhart, New Orleans Homicide, had a
perfect record on his latest case: not a single suspect. And there
should be at least five or six, given the DNA traces on the many bodies.
Furthermore, his sole really outstanding clue, a mysterious fish scale,
had disappeared into the recesses of the FBI Crime Lab. But the old
fortune-teller was sending him into the bayou, down in the land of
authentic Cajun food, on the track of a mysterious pimp with the
admonition to "watch for the Princess." Or die. Barbara and Kelly were
heading to a rendezvous that might be fate and might reveal the hand of
God. There was more cooking in the swamps than jambalaya. Unknown to
either, the mystery of the Bayou Ripper had Special Circumstances.
Cover art by Stephen Hickman
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Hardcover
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and
events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real
people or incidents is purely coincidental.
First printing, January 2006
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Printed in the United States of America
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ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-0923-3
ISBN-10: 1-4165-0923-2
Copyright 2005 by John Ringo
All rights reserved, including the right to
reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
http://www.baen.com
Production by Windhaven Press
Auburn, NH
Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webwrights.com
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Dedication
Dedicated to the memory of K. Steinberg,
a fine Southron Jewish woman.
Raise a glass of something
pink, frosty and alcoholic.
Her voice and presence will be sorely missed.
As this book was being prepared for print, Hurricane Katrina came ashore and utterly destroyed many of the sites included in the story. It can only be hoped, at this time, that those scenes will someday return to us.
Our prayers go out to the people of Louisiana and Mississippi.
Baen Books by JOHN RINGO
Ghost
Kildar (forthcoming)
Princess of Wands
Into the Looking Glass
A Hymn Before Battle
Gust Front
When the Devil Dances
Hell's Faire
The Hero (with Michael Z. Williamson)
Cally's War (with Julie Cochrane)
Watch on the Rhine (with Tom Kratman)
There Will Be Dragons
Emerald Sea
Against the Tide
East of the Sun and West of the Moon (forthcoming)
The Road to Damascus (with Linda Evans)
with David Weber:
March Upcountry
March to the Sea
March to the Stars
We Few
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