Daughter of Hounds

They are the Children of the Cuckoo. Stolen from their cribs and concealed in shadows to be raised by ghouls, they are now changelings in service to the creatures who rule the world Below and despise the world Above. Any human contact is strictly forbidden and punishment is swift and severe for those who disobey. Raised by her widower father, Emmie Silvey has a precocious personality and striking yellow eyes that have left her a solitary child. But that changes when two women enter her life-one who stalks her, one who haunts her dreams- both insisting that her entire life is a lie and warning her of an encroaching darkness.

From Publishers Weekly

Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's tales of legendary monsters running amok under the streets of New England, Kiernan's fifth novel (after Low Red Moon) to feature psychic sensitive Deacon Silvey and his supernaturally scarred family and friends is a hell-raising dark fantasy replete with ghouls, changelings and eerie intimations of a macabre otherworld. The story develops along two converging lines sketched in alternating chapters. In one, Deacon's adolescent daughter, Emmie, finds herself increasingly subject to weird presentiments and uncanny encounters that suggest she's more fey than mortal. In the other, a hard-boiled female demon-killer, Soldier, cuts a swath through Rhode Island's ghoul-infested underground on a vaguely defined mission that eventually brings her and Emmie together as partners. The complex plot springs abundant surprises involving forgotten cradle exchanges, mistaken identities and unexpected betrayals on its juggernaut roll to a memorable finale. Though more talky than Kiernan's usual, the story still manages an effective mix of atmosphere and action and resolves most of the major subplots. (Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The changeling Children of the Cuckoo have been stolen from their homes and raised by ghouls. Contact with humans is forbidden them, and they even hear a terrifying cautionary tale of a girl who tried to flaunt this interdiction. Yellow-eyed eight-year-old Emmy Silvey is about to cross paths with one of the ghouls' children, the woman named Soldier, a killer for the Bailiff, who works mostly with the Hounds of Cain (i.e., the ghouls). In a yellow house in Providence, Emmy and Soldier are doomed to learn the terrible truths about their lives. For Emmy, discovery begins when, on the train to visit her stepmother in New York, a strange woman tattooed with the seal of Solomon warns her to avoid horses. Soldier's enlightenment commences when she nearly dies in an attempted betrayal by her partner and starts getting really nasty jobs and partners who aren't particularly safe to work with. Kiernan's storytelling is stellar, and the misunderstandings and lies of stories within the main story evoke a satisfying tension in the characters. Regina SchroederCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Neil Gaiman

“Caitlín Kiernan is the poet and bard of the wasted and the lost.”

Clive Barker

“Caitlín R. Kiernan is an original.”

Peter Straub

“Caitlín R. Kiernan draws her strength from the most honorable of sources, a passion for the act of writing.”

Poppy Z. Brite

“Caitlín R. Kiernan writes like a Gothic cathedral on fire.”

Locus

“Breathtaking…This is possibly Kiernan’s best novel yet.”

Green Man Review

“A pretty explosive and captivating read. Highly recommended.”

Publishers Weekly

“An effective mix of atmosphere and action.”

Midwest Book Review

“Caitlín R. Kiernan pays homage to Lovecraft in the scary Daughter of Hounds. There is a sense of the foreboding gothic that creeps out the audience and the antagonists who set much of the pace seem freaky and deadly. . . . a suspense laden tale that keeps readers’ attention.”

About the Author

Caitlin R. Kiernan is the author of nine novels, including Silk, Threshold, Low Red Moon, Murder of Angels, Daughter of Hounds, and The Red Tree. Her award-winning short fiction has been collected in six volumes, including Tales of Pain and Wonder; To Charles Fort, With Love; Alabaster; and, most recently, A is for Alien. She has also published two volumes of erotica, Frog Toes and Tentacles and Tales from the Woeful Platypus. Trained as a vertebrate paleontologist, she currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

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