Kingdom of the Wicked

About Kingdom of the Wicked

Emilia's twin sister is murdered in a ritual killing in 1800s Sicily, and when no earthly authority takes it seriously, Emilia summons a demon to help find the killer — not knowing that the demon she calls is Wrath, one of the seven princes of Hell, and that the investigation she is drawing him into is considerably more dangerous than a single murder suggests. Kingdom of the Wicked is the first book in Kerri Maniscalco's historical fantasy series, applying the Victorian gothic atmosphere of her Stalking Jack the Ripper series to a mythology drawn from Catholic demonology and Sicilian folklore. Maniscalco excels at setting: 1800s Sicily is rendered with sensory specificity — the food, the architecture, the social codes governing what a young woman of a good family can and cannot do — and the contrast between that grounded world and the Hell it turns out to border gives the book its distinctive texture. The romance between Emilia and Wrath follows the enemies-to-reluctant-allies arc with skill; Wrath is a love interest who is genuinely alien in ways that feel consistent with what a centuries-old demon prince would actually be, rather than simply a powerful man with trust issues. The mystery structure — who killed Emilia's twin, and why, and what larger game is being played across the mortal and infernal realms — drives the plot with genuine forward momentum and arrives at revelations that expand the series' scope significantly for the subsequent volumes. Maniscalco's prose is atmospheric and controlled, suited to a story that needs to maintain the tension between the mundane and the infernal across a full novel without either element overwhelming the other. Kingdom of the Wicked is dark fantasy romance that respects both its historical setting and its demonology, and it opens a series that deepens in ambition with each book.

Tropes & Themes