Madame Alchemier, a defiant maven, runs a dilapidated secondhand bookshop, doubling as an asylum for misfits. Underground, a secret society plots mayhem. Above sprawls the city of Artizan, where sky pirates are beheading clowns and heretics, in a thanatocracy (rule by death), yet where there is still beauty and courage. Discover the defiance of Artizan’s citizens, its carnies, shifters, fugitives, lunatics and sexy surrealists. Our protagonists become embroiled in a murder mystery with an art heist, linked to a mysterious anagram. How they respond will change all their lives forever.