About midday the white cat emerged from Grace's open window and walked along the sills of the Rookery, jumping from disastrous ledge to ledge, and down and up the vertiginous heights. It surveyed the slums, the winding streets that were in parts so narrow, only cats could walk two abreast. Also, from the roof, later, the distant avenues of infamous Black Church where, in antique times, dark priests had had a monastery and worshipped the Devil. Then, in the night, as the moon rose, the white cat sang. It sang in a high and sacred voice ... Grace is green-eyed, beautiful, a psychic healer—and also a whore. She walks the streets of Black Church to make a living. After years of horror and poverty as a brothel slave, Saul Anger was adopted into a life of ease, and he has now taken on the mantle of his dead uncle's house, as well as the leadership of a secret society whose figurehead is Anubis, the jackal god of Egypt. Dedicated to justice and retribution, this society will destroy those it deems evil. There must always be blood. One midnight, in the great clock-tower of the city a man hangs himself—and secret desires are let loose. A demon now stalks the streets and alleys, slaying the wicked and the innocent alike. But can Saul locate the source of destruction and tame it? Or will beautiful Grace—who has fallen in love with him—be able to stem this tide of madness and primeval terror? For, aided by the goddess Pasht and by all the cats of the city, perhaps she alone can turn back the clock.
Author
Tanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She also wrote four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7." Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress. Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971. Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing. Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror. Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s. Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.
