"Compulsively readable space mysteries ... Highly recommended."—i09 Andrea Cort, convicted war criminal and legal Counselor for the Diplomatic Corps, has received an urgent summons from the very last people in the universe who should have any reason to contact her: the ruthless family of munitions manufacturers known as the Bettelhines. Bettelhine technology has destroyed worlds. The Bettelhine Corporation is responsible for millions of deaths. But a summons to the Bettelhine homeworld, Xana, is too important to ignore, especially for a woman like Andrea, who is already fighting her own secret war. She arrives on Xana with her lovers, a man and a woman with a single shared personality, and finds out almost immediately that there are people on Xana who want her dead…and there will be more deaths before she stands even a slight chance of getting the answers she needs. It all comes down to just who she is…and who is ruthless enough to use the ancient alien weapon known as the Claw of God. Includes the novella "Knives That Carve the Marionettes," set chronologically after The Third Claw of God. "I'm particularly fond of blends of SF and the detective story, particularly when they're as well done as this one."—Critical Mass Adam-Troy Castro's fiction has won the Seiun and Philip K. Dick Awards, and received two nominations for the Hugo, three for the Stoker, and eight for the Nebula. Andrea Cort Novels Emissaries from the Dead The Third Claw of God The War of the Marionettes Andrea Cort short stories With Unclean Hands The Coward's Option and Tasha's Fail-Safe Unseen Demons The Knives that Carve the Marionettes