Kristine Kathryn Rusch Books in Order

Artist Simpson purchases a blind man’s Alter Ego to deepen his understanding of color. As he explores sensation through another person’s sightlessness, his artistic experiment threatens his sense of identity and draws him toward losing himself.

Dancer Emilio Diate joins the secret police on an island where dancing is forbidden, intent on avenging his family's execution. Falling in love complicates his plans as political conflict threatens everyone he cares about.

Civil War photographer Mathew Brady devoted his life to images that left him impoverished. This novella gives him a glimpse of their future significance, exploring what an artist's work can mean beyond his own lifetime.

Edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith, this handbook collects advice for working writers. It treats writing as both a craft and a career, addressing the demands of sustaining a professional life.

Abandoned in an unfamiliar city and declared dead, Prince Adric must survive as a stable boy before reclaiming his throne. Meanwhile, a bard and a magician approach the palace amid political intrigue and dangerous magic.

Facing death at the hands of the Joan of Arc killer, Rebecca Tamerlane suddenly finds herself whole and strong in someone else's body. Her unexpected transformation introduces a supernatural mystery into a brutal human crime.

Actor Thomas returns to the Oregon coast after his daughter's murder, hoping to face his past. Messages apparently from her, dead birds and sightings of his double suggest something sinister is gathering around him.

A dying king summons heart readers to choose between his twin sons without bloodshed. But the two women selected share a violent history, while treachery within the palace threatens an already dangerous royal succession.

Six children die on Bountiful, their bodies arranged in an imitation of an alien ritual. The tragedy destroys peaceful relations between humans and Dancers, leaving one man trying to help shattered lives without losing himself.

Vampire hunter Cammie once killed her father to protect her brother Ben, only to lose him in the care system. Leaving her work to find him forces her to confront her family's unsettling legacy.

The magical Fey invade peaceful Blue Isle, expecting an easy conquest. Jewel, granddaughter of their Black King, faces Prince Nicholas, whose people possess a mysterious weapon that could overturn the invaders' overwhelming military advantage.

An uneasy truce keeps the warrior Fey and Blue Isle's people from renewed war. When betrayals threaten that peace, the struggle for power forces both sides to question whom they can trust or live alongside.

Addy returns to Dory Cove after her mother's death and encounters a young man resembling her long-lost sweetheart. His apparent return after fifty years threatens to expose secrets and unleash a deadly power from the sea.

Black King Rugad returns to Blue Isle twenty years after the Fey's first invasion, determined to seize it. Competing claims over a shared royal heir turn the struggle for two nations into a dangerous family conflict.

This volume pairs Afterimage with its sequel, Aftershock. Rebecca Tamerlane's strange escape from a serial killer leads into a world of shapeshifters whose bond with the land becomes deadly when earthquakes devastate California.

In 1972 Munich, a young American researcher interviews retired detective Fritz Stecher. His account of investigating Geli Raubal's death in Hitler's apartment reveals a case obstructed from the start by powerful political interests.

With Blue Isle's capital devastated, Rugad seeks control of his two royal descendants. Arianna and King Nicholas resist from hiding, while forgotten magic and a divided family offer uncertain hope against the conquering Fey.

As the struggle for Blue Isle approaches its decisive battle, Fey and Islanders face terrible choices. Dangerous magic and the Place of Power become central to a conflict in which freedom and family loyalties collide.

After fifteen years of peace, Queen Arianna senses a ruthless presence struggling for control of her mind. Her brother Gift must confront his own claim to the Black Throne while seeking a way to help her.

A strange object approaching Earth appears linked to layers of residue left at archaeological sites every two millennia. With six months before its arrival, astronomers and archaeologist Leo Cross confront a threat concealed in humanity's past.

In 1960s Memphis, private investigator Smokey Dalton receives an unexpected inheritance from a woman he cannot recall meeting. Her daughter's questions pull him into his own past as racial tensions rise around Martin Luther King's visit.

Scheherazade faces execution after a single day as the sultan’s bride. Telling him stories of heroes, deception, magic, and love offers a way to postpone her death, while the kingdom’s future depends on whether her ingenuity can change him.

Aliens must harvest Earth's resources before their planet's orbit carries them into deep space for two thousand years. Human scientists race to stop the invasion, fearing their increasingly powerful defenses may be equally destructive.

Earth has resisted the aliens who periodically strip its resources, leaving their population facing starvation. As their planet returns from behind the sun, humanity prepares a nuclear response that could destroy the invaders' entire world.

Queen Arianna's preparations for war alarm her brother Gift, who has renounced the throne to become a Shaman. Saving their world means confronting a dark power while an ancient family curse restricts his choices.

New Yorkers Virginia and her father Tony stumble into a realm shaped by fairy tales. Joining a wolf and a prince transformed into a dog, they must confront an evil queen and restore the rightful ruler to his throne.

Attorney Nora Barr takes a wizard's unusual case involving Sleeping Beauty and a dangerous witch. As she helps a medieval woman navigate modern life, her growing attraction to the supposed Prince Charming complicates the assignment.

Hiding under an assumed name in Chicago, Smokey Dalton works security at the Hilton during the 1968 Democratic Convention. Protests engulf the city while a killer in his neighborhood forces him to risk his fragile safety.

Eleven stories explore lives unsettled by strange possibilities and harsh social realities. An adopted child from the Moon and a photographer confronted with future wars join characters whose extraordinary circumstances expose difficult truths about family, history, and belonging.

An American tourist joins a Chinese goddess in a quest to retrieve an ancient manuscript stolen by demons. Their journey into a fantastical underground world exposes unfamiliar dangers, making cooperation essential to recovering the text and surviving its captors.

Sleeping Beauty now works as a history professor, but her skeptical new boss doubts research drawn from her own memories. When her magic becomes uncontrollable, a road trip to Oregon brings them unexpectedly closer.

Punished by the Fates, Darius must unite soulmates before he can regain his freedom. Falling for injured triathlete Ariel makes that task painful, because he believes her destined partner is someone he must still find.

Suspicion and religious fear tear apart seventeenth-century Salem as accusations of witchcraft spread. The novel follows the people and motivations behind the trials, exploring how private grievances become public hysteria and place innocent lives at the mercy of their neighbors.

Psychic Vivian shelters three powerless women who claim to be the Fates. Their search for help brings her to pet store owner Dexter Grant, whose hidden powers and growing attraction draw them into a magical crisis.

A Mediterranean sailing trip strands wealthy, controlling Amber and impoverished, arrogant Giuseppe on an uninhabited island. Forced to rely on each other, they confront a reversal of their familiar roles as survival reshapes the antagonism between them.

Moon detective Miles Flint confronts a yacht full of bodies, kidnapped children and a woman fleeing alien prosecution. Enforcing the Earth Alliance's treaties means obeying laws whose punishments force him to question his duty.

This collection introduces a future in which people erase their identities to escape alien laws. Its title story follows Miles Flint, a detective paid to locate the Disappeared, alongside other speculative stories by Rusch.

Smokey Dalton investigates a Black man's death in a Chicago park after police show little interest. Protecting young Jimmy while pursuing the case draws him into the South Side's history of gangs, racism and buried secrets.

A suspicious death during the Moon's Extreme Marathon brings Detective Noelle DeRicci into a difficult investigation. Miles Flint's separate case converges on a missing scientist as the threat of a deadly epidemic grows.

Lyssa Buckingham returns to Oregon's Seavy County with her daughter, where her family has long protected hidden mythical creatures. The forces that killed her father are strengthening again, threatening both the creatures and her family.

Travers Kinneally drives three strange women to Las Vegas to find detective Zoe Sinclair. The trip draws him into the Fates' magical troubles, while Zoe's unexpected appearance and their mutual attraction complicate the rescue.

Detective Noelle DeRicci investigates the death of a woman Miles Flint helped return from hiding. Their conflicting obligations conceal links to a human-alien war, turning a lunar murder case into a threat to the solar system.

In Chicago, Smokey Dalton and his girlfriend find a woman gravely injured after an illegal abortion. Helping her draws him into the aftermath of rape and a threatened revenge that could ignite further violence.

Human bones beneath a Martian alien city prompt an evacuation and a forensic investigation. Aisha Costard hires Miles Flint to find the dead woman's missing children as the case threatens to become a wider crisis.

Psychologist Megan Kinneally travels to Las Vegas to help her brother and encounters Robin Hood himself. Their attraction develops amid a mission to rescue the Fates and recover a magical spinning wheel from a faerie casino.

Smokey Dalton searches for a Chicago teacher's son, who has vanished from Yale. Traveling to New Haven with Jimmy and a young cook, he encounters racism and troubling signs of the student's involvement in radical protests.

Inspecting a Chicago property for Laura Hathaway, Smokey Dalton discovers bodies sealed behind basement walls. Forensic work draws him into decades of racial violence and corruption as the city confronts the turmoil of 1969.

Miles Flint investigates the murder of his mentor Paloma after finding himself linked to her death and shut out by police. Her hidden activities force him to question the principles that shaped his work.

Thirteen-year-old Talia Shindo returns home on Callisto to discover that her mother has been kidnapped. Meanwhile, Miles Flint's investigation into his mentor's files reveals a connection to the missing woman and her dangerous past.

A salvage diver known as Boss discovers an ancient spacecraft where it should never have reached. Gathering a team to explore it, she encounters technology whose secrets could attract the Empire's attention and endanger everyone aboard.

Miles Flint assembles allies to bring down a powerful law firm. When someone on his team is killed, he faces an investigation that puts the people he cares about at risk and challenges the rules of his profession.

Smokey Dalton and Marvella Walker agree to take an abused woman and her daughter from Madison to a Chicago shelter. But the woman's racism makes her refuse their help, threatening an already difficult rescue.

A strange encounter in Felton Woods changes two boys' lives. Decades later, Richard dies in those same woods, and his daughter asks his childhood friend Scott to investigate what happened and why.

Steffie turns new fashion looks into trends after escaping a restrictive upbringing. When her younger sister, genetically kept a child, asks for help running away, Steffie must decide whether to intervene or leave her behind again.

Solanda, a shapeshifter among the Fey, receives a mission from the Black King that could transform her people's future. Her hopes for a better life for her child complicate the choice between action and inaction.

After Hurricane Katrina, Ruby wants to rescue displaced magical familiars and bring them home to Oregon. Her plans alarm Winston, who anticipates a crowded household, while memories of another disaster fuel Ruby's determination to help.

Tara has retired from tackling black magic for Abracadabra Incorporated and now runs a magic shop. A visit to Paris draws her into the mystery of a deadly dragon's tooth and the dark power behind it.

Winston's dying cat familiar, Buster, asks for a Viking funeral. Granting that final wish means burning a boat at sea, forcing a magician with modest powers to navigate laws and magic to say goodbye properly.

Five fantasy stories follow fairies, shapeshifters, vampires, and people entangled with unexpected magic. From a peculiar theft to political vampire intrigue and a high school disrupted by supernatural trouble, their encounters range from playful complications to darker threats.

Five cat stories move between crime, fantasy, and science fiction. Secretive felines, a whimsical thief, an invasion thwarted by a cat, and a mystery involving Scrawny Pete reveal animals whose lives intersect with human troubles and unfamiliar worlds.

Five stories explore Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s through mystery, humor, fantasy, and science fiction. Recurring characters confront seasonal complications, while disasters and the pressure surrounding children born at the millennium turn holiday expectations into unusual challenges.

Five stories set in Oregon follow characters caught between everyday life and unexpected mystery or magic. A strange escape, patriotic sacrifice, an unusual performer, teleportation, and events at the Moorhead House expose different sides of the state.

This short guide explores the first decisions involved in becoming a freelancer. Rusch discusses adopting a business mindset, choosing a workspace at home or elsewhere, and organizing schedules around the priorities of working for yourself.

Rusch examines money management for people working for themselves, focusing on what happens to earnings after they arrive. This short freelancer guide addresses the need to manage income and keep spending from outstripping what a business makes.

This guide examines negotiation in situations ranging from buying a car to signing a book contract. Rusch discusses negotiating for yourself and deciding when to hire someone, including the importance of understanding whose interests a representative serves.

Pamela Jackson has built a respectable new identity on the Oregon coast while concealing her past. Summoned for jury duty in a murder trial, she finds that what she knows threatens the life she has created.

Photographer Roz is approached by men working for Wells Fargo who need a picture of a captured stagecoach robber. In a western world with few women in her profession, she insists on handling the assignment on her terms.

Rusch explores ways freelancers can build connections in person and online without forcing themselves into someone else's approach. The guide includes her own experiences and online networking suggestions from writers Neil Gaiman and Michael A. Stackpole.

After Apollo 8 disappears into space, eight-year-old Richard Johansenn becomes determined to recover the lost capsule. He devotes his life and eventual fortune to the search, confronting questions about hope, obsession, and what rescuing the past can mean.

A frightened woman asks Winston Karpathian for a spell, then turns up dead. The modestly talented magician joins a detective who doubts magic to investigate whether her unusual request holds the key to her murder.

Winston discovers that Ruby has vanished, then learns other magical familiars across the Northwest are disappearing too. Determined to recover the companion he considers his only family, he searches for an explanation behind the mysterious disappearances.

Ten Christmas stories cross fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and ordinary life. Criminal schemes, unusual visitors, and troubled celebrations bring characters into situations that can turn dark or funny, testing their hopes and connections during the holiday season.

Patricia Taylor struggles through spinning classes with an instructor she believes despises her. When he is found dead, she must confront her feelings toward him and the other residents of her coastal town, including his killer.

As a devastating storm hits Whale Rock, Sheriff Dan Retsler struggles to protect the town. His refusal to believe a woman's warning about magic leaves him confronting the consequences of dismissing something he could not explain.

Tara handles dangerous black magic for Abracadabra Incorporated. An investigation into an assassin's dagger leads her to an ancient French shop, where she must face a corrupted source of magic more powerful than she expected.

Private detective Spade receives an unusual request at a science fiction convention from the mysterious Paladin. She needs help finding a teenage boy who disappears whenever she approaches, leaving Spade to investigate an apparently impossible case.

Mellie blames fairy tales for wrecking her life and sets out to protest their sale at a book fair. On the way, she meets a handsome man who loves books and happens to be Prince Charming.

Rusch draws on her experience working for herself to explain the business side of freelancing. The guide covers negotiation, networking, goals, and coping with failure and success, helping readers consider how to sustain an independent career.

The last old-fashioned vampire hides in a New York apartment while his kind faces extinction. He devises what he considers a foolproof plan to save his race, but his final opportunity may prove less reliable than he expects.

The regulars at a casino's Thursday blackjack tournament prefer to stay unnoticed and have little interest in UFOs. When the lights go out during a game, an eerie encounter challenges their assumptions about what is possible.

Young Paavo Deshin has always seen the same two ghosts, but their appearance on his school playground brings an alarming change. Miles Flint investigates alongside authorities and lawyers, uncovering questions about the visitors and Paavo's parents.

Hadad Yu earns his living recovering objects, until trouble forces him to accept a different assignment from the alien Gyonnese. Asked to retrieve a woman accused of crimes, he enters a bargain with dangerous personal consequences.

Miles Flint tracks people who have erased their identities to escape harsh alien laws. His work as a Retrieval Artist requires weighing clients' demands against the danger that finding someone may expose them to punishment again.

This short freelancer guide considers how to define success and sustain it once it arrives. Rusch explores the difference between personal goals and other people's expectations, along with the difficulties that can follow apparent achievement.

Meklos Verr is hired to protect an archaeological excavation near the Spires of Denon. Suspicious cave divers and tensions within the expedition leave him unsure where an attack will come from as he tries to keep everyone safe.

Sheriff Dan Retsler investigates disturbing deaths on the beach at Whale Rock. Local fears of the sea and sightings of mysterious women push the practical sheriff toward legends of mermaids that he has never believed.

Working for yourself brings freedom over your schedule, but also responsibility for making it work. Rusch's short guide explores meeting deadlines, planning vacations, and handling illness while managing the demands of a freelance career.

This short guide examines how freelancers can respond to setbacks and failure rather than letting them end a career. Rusch considers the challenge of surviving disappointment and finding opportunities that can help turn unsuccessful efforts toward future success.

Armstrong prepares to mark four years since a deadly bombing, but the mayor's murder signals a new threat. Security chief Noelle DeRicci and detective Bartholomew Nyquist investigate while Miles Flint tries to protect his daughter.

Roz finds her husband Jack in her photography studio with a young woman seeking nude daguerreotypes. Trusting him but questioning the visitor's intentions, she investigates what the woman really wants from the photographs and from Jack.

Boss leads her team into Vaycehn to investigate caves where archaeologists have died. As mysterious death holes break into the city, she suspects the same dangerous Stealth Technology she has been searching for aboard ancient spacecraft.

After an uneventful life, Grint becomes a minor employee maintaining fairness in the afterlife. When a villain cheats his way toward Heaven during Grint’s shift, the powerless minion must find a way to restore the cosmic balance.

Five detectives pursue mysteries across a science fiction convention, the Moon, a village, and a world inhabited by dragons. Their investigations bring very different methods to bear on crimes and secrets that resist ordinary explanations.

Five science fiction stories find comedy in improbable threats and unlikely solutions. A child’s desire for a nap, poker players facing invaders, and a surprisingly capable cat turn familiar ideas about alien encounters and planetary survival upside down.

Five romances follow unlikely lovers through fairy tales, divine dating troubles, marriage dilemmas, and the old West. A nerdy prince falls for an evil stepmother, while gods and grifters discover that finding love can complicate their lives.

Successful lawyer F. Reed Hamlin has money and recognition but no close family ties. A news report about the capture of a fugitive Vietnam-era bomber changes that, revealing that the woman arrested is his mother.

Sarah’s dying mother insists that an extended care facility will kill her and begs to live with Sarah instead. Unable to afford care while raising her own children, Sarah must weigh a frightening accusation against an impossible family obligation.

Ten mysteries follow people whose hidden lives become entangled with crime. A secretive juror, corpse-watching cats, and a futuristic detective who lies professionally join characters whose investigations expose uncomfortable truths and challenge appearances of innocence.

Princess Imperia Encanto tries to protect her sister Grace from bullying at their Beverly Hills school. Without magic or her father's charm, she resorts to a punch, only to discover that defending Grace has created further trouble.

Presumed dead teen idol Davy Moss lives quietly as contractor Josh Candless until an impromptu performance attracts music promoter Emily Lukovich. She wants to launch his career, but his concealed past complicates their growing personal connection.