New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton returns for the first in a two-book epic conclusion to her genre-defining Merry Gentry Series.
Intrigued? Read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from A Glimmer of Death by Lauren K. Hamilton, which releases on November 3rd 2026.
I am Meredith Gentry. Princess of the realm of faerie, private investigator in the mortal land of Los Angeles, mother of triplets, and lover to my men—the royal guards sworn to protect me. With a family and a court to support back home, I can’t say no to a job investigating a string of magical attacks against up-and-coming Hollywood actresses. Not when the case raises old nightmares from my own past. This time when I find out who is responsible for all this pain, I can make him pay.
But affairs in the land of faerie keep interrupting my hunt. Aisling is supposed to be the next king of the Seelie Court, but he is doubly cursed once by beauty and once by despair. If we cannot cure him my uncle Taranis, former King of Light and Illusion, may regain the throne. If he does he will destroy me and everyone I care about. Only true love will cure Aisling of his curse but is my love true enough? If not, I will share his fate and lose myself to the haunted magic that torments him.
While we fight for one kingdom of faerie, my aunt Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness, claims my deceased best friend, Keelin, has turned up alive and well along with a child supposedly sired by her dead son. If this baby is the true child of my former rival to the Unseelie throne, my enemies might use it to take the throne from me. Mysterious fey babies, curses both ancient and new are shaking the delicate balance of the faerie courts, and I am still hunting a monster terrorizing the women of Los Angeles.
EXCERPT
Chapter Three
The entrance from the garden was through the back of the house, which looked nice but less ostentatious than the front, which made it seem cozier and somehow more family friendly. We walked through the crowd of children, parents, and grandparents. There was punch, cider, cookies, caramel apples, and face painting and that was just what we could see from near the door. The room kept going with the crowd blocking our view so there was more out of sight. It looked both fun and like a lot of work to navigate. Were the triplets old enough to hold still for face painting? Was Liam? Caramel apples were out unless we could cut them into manageable pieces. Cookies looked safer, but the cider and punch sitting out in open plastic cups was a mess waiting to happen. We had sippy cups with us, and we were going to use them otherwise we’d be wearing the red punch.
I looked at Liam’s once pristine white prince outfit. It looked even worse in brighter light. It was ruined, he could have punch and anything else stain wise. The cleanest thing was his short blonde hair and the new paper crown on top of it. Tempest had managed to get chocolate not just on her fairy outfit, but into her white curls. She had cried to get a crown, but once she had it she hadn’t wanted to wear anything but the bouncy antenna.
Little Essus was happily wearing his pirate hat over his puppy costume. Bree was trying to pull her pirate hat over the hood of her dragon outfit, so her face was almost completely hidden except for the tip of her chin.
A woman with short black hair wearing a red dress that fit her like a second skin came to stand near us. Her dark eyes were framed by a red lace mask that acted more as eye makeup than a costume. She was tall, slender and very modelesque. I thought at first she was going to get some cider for herself, but she gazed at all of us, then looked down at me with a smile that had that edge of condescension to it that I’d endured all my life at the high courts and now in Hollywood for not being tall, or slender enough. Once it had hurt my feelings, but all the differences that people had hated me for had led me to a life and the people I loved. No stranger’s attitude could pierce me now, so I smiled up at her sweetly. Her smile stayed fixed, but her eyes showed hesitation, then she blinked, and I felt the prickling dance of her power along my skin.
We’d been sent to find magic and here it was inside the house flexing at us. I did not have to flex my own power; I just had to stop hiding it. The woman’s power was pushed back from my skin before my eyes started to glow. I saw the Jade, emerald, and metallic gold light reflected in her dark eyes.
“It was silly of me to try and match magic with a being made of it,” she said, her voice managing to sound unimpressed, “I’m Trina, the witch they hired before you.”
“We’ll need to confirm that with Mr. Brewster,” Doyle said.
“Of course, I was sent to take you to the meeting.”
“Then why didn’t you start with that?” I asked, and concentrated on shutting down my magic before anyone else at the party saw my eyes glowing.
She gave a graceful shrug. “I have never had a client need more than me when it came to supernatural issues. I had to try you a tiny bit.”
“It was foolish,” Doyle said.
“Perhaps,” she said.
“It was dangerous,” Frost said.
“Perhaps,” she said again, then, “follow me.”
She turned without waiting for us to react as if she was either certain we would follow or didn’t care. I hesitated for a second, then Doyle came up beside me, and we followed her swaying hips through the room. I glanced down to see that she was wearing six-inch stilettos which would make anyone sway when they walked. I hoped someday to be back in shoes that high, but right now I was too top heavy and chasing too many babies for stilettos.
I lifted my skirts and did my best to keep them out of the way of the running, shrieking herd of children. A toddler rammed into Trina’s long legs and nearly knocked her down. She recovered and I followed her in my sensible low heels, smiling.
She led us through the sprawling mansion and gradually the noisy party receded until we came to a part of the house that was so quiet you’d have never known the party was happening. Trina opened a door and ushered us inside. It let us know how big the house was and how good the sound proofing was. I expected her to stay for some reason, but she just closed the door and left us alone.
The office was large and dimly lit with only a desk lamp and a floor lamp sitting by an overstuffed, leather chair that had reading chair written all over it, except the books on the built-in shelves looked leather and perfect and untouched. The library part of the room was just for show, but the dark wood desk gleamed with decades of polish. I doubted that Brewster had ever polished it himself, but the work laid out across the leather desk blotter looked messy and real. There were even two small metal file cabinets that were dented and looked older than the antique desk, because they looked like they had been at Tom Brewster’s side decades before he could have afforded the rest of the furniture or the house around this office.
Did he keep the file cabinets to remind himself of where he came from, of how hard he’d worked, to not get too full of himself? Did he even know why he kept them? The office was a showpiece that Architectural Digest would have been happy to photograph, except for those two file cabinets. Maybe he hid them when he was interviewed, or maybe he didn’t?
Bree was looking around the room with large, dark eyes. It reminded me of the way Doyle was watching the room with his own dark eyes. We’d agreed tonight that he would have limited baby duty so that he could have his hands free for all the weapons he was wearing and the magic he could do with his hands.
Frost came to stand beside us with Tempest wiggling in his arms. She wanted down. She’d start bouncing in his arms soon, and if that didn’t get her what she wanted she’d start screaming. The file cabinets could withstand toddler love, but the globe of the world on its wooden stand gleamed in the low light like each country might actually be made of real semi-precious jewels. I really didn’t want Tempest hitting that, or the crystal whiskey decanter set It really wasn’t a room made for children. I was betting his own four-year-olds didn’t go into daddy’s office much.
Liam said, “G’obe!” pointing at the beautiful globe. He’d recently acquired a fascination with maps and globes. You never knew what children would latch onto, and only time would tell how long those fascinations lasted.
I heard Essus say, “Da-da,” softly, persuasively. I turned and wasn’t surprised to see Essus’s small hands on either side of Galen’s face. The little boy leaned in towards Galen’s face saying softly, pleasantly, “Da-da, down.”
Galen smiled at him, face full of all that fatherly love. I smiled at them both part romantic love for Galen and motherly love for our little boy. I wish I could have taken my phone out and taken a picture, but if I got out any electronics the babies would want it. If I wanted to calm Tempest down getting out my phone wouldn’t accomplish that.
Luckily the door opened, and new people to meet was enough distraction for Tempest for at least a few minutes. Trina held the door and the Brewsters walked through holding hands.
He was tall, gray-haired and had that confidence of someone who had been powerful and wealthy for most of his life, but when he looked at his wife he glowed like anyone else in love. It made me smile because I was in love, too, and nothing makes you enjoy seeing other people happy as much as being happy yourself.
Helena Brewster was beautiful, just like a hundred other beautiful blond actresses you could see at every casting call or being waitresses as they waited for their big break. She was truly lovely with big, wide blue eyes, and nice cheekbones, full, sexy lips and a thin figure finally curving after the birth of twins. I sympathized with that last part, though I’d started with more curves than most modern actresses allow themselves. She looked great, but other than slightly more curves in appropriate places it was a generic loveliness like a Barbie doll come to life.
I finally understood why people in the business were so puzzled why this woman had been the one to tame one of Hollywood’s great womanizers. Brewster had other wives that had given him children over the decades. He had one grown son that worked with him at the Studio, but most had left with their mothers after the divorce. He wasn’t stingy with child support and made sure his ex-families had no reason to write a tell-all book or rock his Hollywood power boat. How did I know all this? It helps to share a home with Maeve Reed, the Golden Goddess of Hollywood.
I expected him to take the lead in the meeting, but she said, “I’m Helena Brewster thank you so much for taking this meeting in the middle of the party. We’ll make it as brief as possible, so your little ones don’t get too bored.”
Tom Brewster added, “And so we don’t miss seeing our boys at the party.”
Helena gave her husband a look that made her appear even more beautiful, because love does that. She didn’t look like a generic blond anymore; she was unique and herself and it was wonderful to see that she loved her husband as much as he loved her. I would tell Maeve that it was true love when she got home from Europe.
Helena turned back to me, and then she looked at Bree, and bent over to say, “Aren’t you just the most beautiful little baby?” Bree wasn’t impressed, but then she seldom was. Helena stood up and looked up at me and asked, “Or are you raising your babies so that you don’t compliment the girls on their looks, but praise everyone on actions like boys are traditionally raised?”
“We tell all of them that they’re beautiful, and smart,” I said.
“Oh,” she said, “I hadn’t thought about telling the boys they’re beautiful, just telling the girls they’re smart and strong.”
“In our culture we celebrate beauty in everyone,” I said.
“That’s lovely,” she said.
Tom came to his wife touching her arm gently. “It is a lovely idea but let’s tell the princess and her men why we need their help.”
She nodded. “Of course, thank you for keeping me on track, dear.”
“My pleasure, sweetie pie,” he said, kissed her cheek and stepped back so she could be the center of attention.
“I think there’s a rapist in town that’s using magic on his victims.”
Excerpted from A Glimmer of Death by Laurell K. Hamilton Copyright © 2026 by Laurell K. Hamilton. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
