the breathtaking conclusion of her Samaria Trilogy in The Alleluia Files, Sharon Shinn, winner of the William C. Crawford Award for Outstanding New Fantasy Writer, delivers a compelling new novel that is at once a murder mystery, a reflection on religion, and a bittersweet romance. When a serial killer begins stalking the priestesses of a planet's two religions, Interfed Agent Cowen Drake must immerse himself in an unfamiliar world of stark spirituality to catch the killer. A world that will trap him between opulence and sacrifice, duty and desire, and between two extraordinary women-one who could become the killer's ultimate victim...

The award-winning author of the Samaria Trilogy draws readers into a world of barren beauty and mystery, where religion lures an elusive killer...

"Shinn can make you see angels." -New York Review of Science Fiction

"The most promising and original writer of fantasy to come along since Robin McKinley." -Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn

"The spellbinding Ms. Shinn writes with elegant imagination and steely grace." -Romantic Times