The Dead Cat Tail Assassins

Eveen is a professional killer. The emphasis on that statement should be placed on "professional." She is a reanimated killer, wiped of her memories and in service to the Matron of Assassins that made her second chance at "life" possible. She is efficient, discreet, and willing to dispatch (the term she prefers is "shipped") to whoever is contracted. She follows the three unbreakable tenets of her profession:

1. The contract must be just.
2. The only person that she can kill is the contracted. There can be NO collateral damage.
3. Once you accept an assignment, it must be carried out.

To break any of these rules in the execution of her duties invites a fate worse than death. Eveen knows and understands this. She gets the job done every time...until she doesn’t.

On the evening of the Festival of the Clockwork King (think Mardi Gras, only several times more "festive!"), while the city is in bacchanalian chaos, Eveen is given her latest assignment and informed she has been requested by name for this job.

Eveen crosses the city, arrives at the specified location, and, as she is about to strike, she sees a face that tells her several things simultaneously:

1. She, a person with no memories, remembers this face.
2. She cannot kill this person.
3. She has been set up.

Now, the clock is ticking, and Eveen must discover who orchestrated this and if there is any way to protect her victim, now her charge, and ensure that they both live to see the sunrise in the morning.

Like Clark’s earlier works, The Dead Cat Tail Assassins doesn’t neatly fit into a single genre. It involves undead assassins, each with their own unique identity and who are beholden to a vengeful god, science, magic, questions about identity, memory, and the question of doing something that seems right while clearly also breaking established rules. It is also an adventure filled with fight scenes, chases, and nearly cataclysmic confrontations. The novel’s protagonist, Eveen, is obsessed with the pulp novels of her world, something that seems clear she shares with Clark. The Dead Cat Tail Assassins is, in essence, a pulp novel where Clark has taken elements of adventure, horror, sci-fi, and fantasy pulp stories and expertly mixed them into a rousing tale. Eveen could easily stand in for The Shadow from the 1930s if The Shadow was an undead woman of color who fancied knives over guns. And she faces a cavalcade of opponents, members of her own assassin’s guild, who are as varied and fascinating as any of Dick Tracy’s or Batman’s rogues' galleries.

In The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, multiple award-winning author P. Djeli Clark again illustrates why he is one of the most interesting and fascinating fantasy writers working today. His worlds are carefully crafted and filled with marvels and wonders. His characters are smart, brash, and almost fearless (they know when to back up when they are about to cross the line). The dialogue is whip-smart, and there is an impish sense of humor that runs throughout the novella. It seems clear that Clark is having as much fun writing as his readers will have reading his work. This makes The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, on top of everything else, FUN! It is a great read, regardless of the season, for readers looking for fun, adventure, and a wicked sense of humor.

• Read an interview with the author here.