The Adventure of the Golden Woman by Cynthia Ward

 

I'm pleased to announce the release of Cynthia Ward's The Adventure of the Golden Woman, the final volume in the Bloody-Thirsty Agent series, as the eighty-first volume in Aqueduct's Conversation Pieces series, in both print and e-book editions. You can purchase it now at www.aqueductpress.com.

 

Lesbian vampire spies at the cabaret!  It's 1931, and conquest of the earth isn't enough for the British Empire.  But the demi-mondaine of occupied Berlin harbors a resistance movement, and the double agents Lucy Harker—Dracula's daughter—and her lover, the vampire Carmilla, steal England's spaceship plans.  Then the handoff to American agent Adolph Hitler is foiled by an impossibly advanced mechanical woman, and the lovers are imprisoned on a lunar spaceship scheduled for imminent launch. Now Lucy and Carmilla's only hope of saving the solar system is to overcome the ship's robot crew and outthink England's greatest espionage agent: Sherlock Holmes. 

  Read a sample from the book.

Publishers Weekly gave the Adventure of the Golden Woman a starred review:

The wildly fun, fast-paced finale to Ward’s Blood-Thirsty Agent series (after The Adventure of the Naked Guide) finds vampire double agent Lucy Harker, daughter of Dracula, working against the power-grabbing British empire through a resistance unit housed in 1931 British-occupied Berlin. After her attempt to deliver documents to Dolf Heidler is foiled by an oddly graceful, golden automaton, Lucy lands in the hands of her step-uncle, Sherlock Holmes. With the help of her vampire lover and fellow double agent, Clarimal Stein—Countess Karnstein of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla—Lucy must complete her mission to halt Britain’s conquest of Earth before the empire can expand outward into the galaxy. It’s an exhilarating example of alternate history, weaving classic characters into a narrative that’s as bombastically entertaining as it is thoughtful. Ward also commendably finds time for nuanced explorations of discrimination based on gender, sexuality, race, and origin in the midst of the thrilling espionage plot. This deeply satisfying conclusion is a win for series fans.  

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 "Cynthia Ward’s Lucy Harker novellas give the modern reader an updated frolic through avant-garde genre fiction, a frolic frosted with a myriad of clever fandom-esque references sure to delight adventurous readers." –Michelle Ristuccia, Tangent Online (February 14, 2020)