Meet Rossamünd?a foundling, a boy with a girl?s name who is about to begin a dangerous life in the service of the Emperor of the Half-Continent. What starts as a simple journey becomes a dangerous and complicated set of battles and decisions. Humans, monsters, unearthly creatures . . . who among these can Rossamünd trust? D. M. Cornish has created an entirely original world, grounded in his own deft, classically influenced illustrations. Foundling is a magic-laced, Dickensian adventure that will transport the reader.

The eagerly awaited second book of the critically acclaimed trilogy! Orphan Rossamund Bookchild has been sworn into the Emperor's service his duty is to light the lamps along the Emperor's highways and protect travelers from the ferocious bogles that live in the wild. But he's found it no easier to fit in with the lamplighters than he did with the foundlings always too small and too meek and his loneliness continues no matter how hard he tries to succeed. But when a haughty young girl, a member of a suspiciously regarded society of all-women teratologists monster hunters is forced upon the lamplighters for training, Rossamund is no longer the most despised soul around. As Rossamund begins to make new friends in the dangerous world of the Half-Continent, he also seems to make more enemies, finding himself pushed toward a destiny that he could never have imagined.

Rossam?nd Bookchild stands accused of not truly being a human at all, but of being a monster. Even the protection of Europe, the Branden Rose-the most feared and renowned monster-hunter in all the Half-Continent-might not be enough to save him. Powerful forces move against them both, intent on capturing Rossam?nd-whose existence some believe may hold the secret to perpetual youth.

Bunting Faukes has a debt and no way to repay it—times are tough for grave robbers. But a way out is presented in the person of Atticus Wells, a sleuth with strange eyes that see into everything. Virtue Bland is alone in the world. Packed off to Brandenbrass to serve the household of her late father’s employer, she has only her old pa’s olfactologue to remember him by. But with it she can smell monsters. The Corsers’ Hinge and The Fuller and the Bogle are two new stories from the Half-Continent.