The Oversight (Oversight Trilogy) - Tapa dura

Only five still guard the borders between the worlds.
Only five hold back what waits on the other side.

Once the Oversight, the secret society that polices the lines between the mundane and the magic, counted hundreds of brave souls among its members. Now their number can be tallied on a single hand.

When a drunkard brings a screaming girl to the Oversight's London headquarters, it seems their hopes for a new recruit will be fulfilled - but the girl is a trap, her appearance a puzzle the five remaining guardians must solve or lose each other, and their society, for good.

As the borders between the natural and the supernatural begin to break down, brutal murders erupt across the city, the Oversight are torn viciously apart, and their enemies close in for the final blow.

This dark Dickensian fantasy spins a tale of witch-hunters, magicians, mirror-walkers and the unlikeliest of heroes drawn from the depths of British folklore. Meet the Oversight, and remember: when they fall, so do we all.

'Exciting, exhilarating, scary and moving in equal measure, The Oversight is a teeming world of dark deeds and dark magics, brilliantly realised. This feels like the start of something amazing'
M. R. Carey, author of THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS

'Told in a kind of compelling and hypnotic poesie that I just lapped up . . . I'll certainly be reading the next one'
Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.net

'The Oversight is - and let's be clear here - something very special . . . It's oh so moreish a morsel. I'd read a prequel this evening, a sequel as soon as.'
Niall Alexander, Tor.com

'A highly entertaining fantasy that promises a trilogy worth sinking your teeth into'
SciFiNow

'Fletcher's Victorian London is juicily vivid, and laced with macabre Dickensian wit. There's a real sense of grim danger, both natural and unnatural, hungrily awaiting the slightest mis-step'
Frances Hardinge

'Richly atmospheric (the evil lurks in the background of every paragraph), the book should be a big hit with supernatural-fantasy readers ... the second book can't come soon enough'
Booklist (starred review)

'A richly atmospheric and intensely readable slice of Victoriana, with a splendidly eerie sense of the way the unearthly lies cheek-by-jowl with the mundane'
Adam Roberts

'Utterly enthralling: Charles Dickens meets Susanna Clarke'
Lou Morgan

'A remarkable combination of British folklore, brisk pacing and wide-ranging imagination'
Kirkus Reviews