The Ashen Plague Detective

At twenty-two years old, Atticus Holden is hardly anyone’s idea of a great detective. He is inexperienced, physically unimposing, and far more comfortable following a trail of evidence than confronting whatever waits at the end of it. What Atticus lacks in strength, however, he makes up for with patience, intelligence, an eye for contradictions—and a talent for asking the questions everyone else overlooks. When Atticus is entrusted with his first solo investigation, the case appears grim but straightforward: people across Veylora are dying from a mysterious illness unlike anything the city has seen before. But the evidence refuses to behave. Victims leave behind strange inconsistencies. Witnesses remember events differently. Ordinary objects seem connected to impossible occurrences. And the deeper Atticus investigates, the less the Ashen Plague resembles a natural disease. With his mentor Dewey Tierney, the resourceful alchemist Tulbe, and the formidable Lyra drawn into the investigation, Atticus begins assembling the pieces of a conspiracy hidden beneath Veylora's streets, institutions, and history. Along the way, new allies and enemies emerge, and Atticus discovers that knowing whom to trust may be just as important as knowing which clues to follow. Atticus has magic of his own. As a warlock, he carries a wand and abilities he does not completely understand. But magic cannot simply reveal the answer to a mystery. Every conclusion must be earned through evidence, observation, and deduction—and using powers he doesn't fully understand may carry consequences of its own. What begins with a strange illness soon becomes something much larger. There are people who have spent years protecting secrets. There are questions buried beneath the official history of Veylora. And there are pieces of Atticus's own past that may be more closely connected to his investigations than he realizes. As one case leads to another, Atticus and his companions find themselves confronting mysteries involving memory, identity, forgotten history, and the dangerous possibility that the truth itself can be manipulated. Yet for Atticus, one rule remains constant: A mystery isn't solved when you find an answer. It's solved when the evidence proves it. And some of Veylora's oldest mysteries are only beginning to reveal themselves. Author Verification: I am the original author of The Ashen Plague Detective. This work is being published on both WebNovel and NovelPhoenix. My NovelPhoenix account username is MultiverseRelics. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: The Ashen Plague Detective — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠