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by C. L. Polk
A magical detective dives into the affairs of Chicago's divine monsters to secure a future with the love of her life.
This sapphic period piece will dazzle anyone looking for mystery, intrigue, romance, magic, or all of the above.
An exiled augur who sold her soul to save her brother's life is offered one last job before serving an eternity in hell. When she turns it down, her client sweetens the pot by offering up the one payment she can't resist―the chance to have a future where she grows old with the woman she loves.
To succeed, she is given three days to track down the White City Vampire, Chicago's most notorious serial killer. If she fails, only hell and heartbreak await.
The Nebula Awards, 2023
"This is a must-read for those who like their queer fantasy with a little grit and a lot of soul (pun intended)." ―Booklist (starred review)
"Readers who fell into recent Jazz Age urban fantasies...will love Polk's latest." ―Library Journal (starred review)
"Even Though I Knew the End rockets along from the very first page, with the details of author C.L. Polk's alternate Chicago revealing themselves exactly when required." ―BookPage (starred review)
"A layered exploration of love and power with genuine emotional stakes and a soaring, perfectly bittersweet payoff. It's another winner." ―Publishers Weekly
"Eerie, sharp and fiercely bittersweet." ―The New York Times
"Noir and fantasy often seem to go together, but those two elements seldom uplift each other quite as well as they do in Even Though I Knew the End" ―The Washington Post
"Powerful, emotional, stylish and smart, Polk proves themself yet again to be a talent not to be ignored." ―Locus
"C.L. Polk twists the hardboiled detective subgenre into something new and fresh and enticingly queer. …[Even Though I Knew the End is] a thrilling, charming novella." ―Tor.com
"Bracing as a slug of bourbon, with a twist of pain on the drop―or is that hope? Polk's back with a cold-eyed winner." ―Max Gladstone, New York Times bestselling co-author of This is How You Lose the Time War
"Stylish supernatural noir with a heart and a thrumming pulse. I devoured it." ―Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author
This information about Even Though I Knew the End was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
C. L. Polk is the author of the World Fantasy Award winning novel Witchmark, the first novel of the Kingston Cycle, and the Nebula Award winning novella, Even Though I Knew The End. After leaving high school early, they have worked as a film extra, sold vegetables on the street, and identified exotic insect species for a vast collection of lepidoptera before settling down to write fantasy novels. Polk lives near the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta, in a tiny apartment with too many books and a yarn stash that could last a decade. They spend too much time on Bluesky.
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