It’s publication day for the trade hardcover edition of The King of Shadows, book eight in Robert McCammon’s Matthew Corbett series! Copies ordered from Lividan Publications and their resellers are signed. Copies ordered from Amazon, B&N, etc, are not. Signed copies can also be ordered from the Alabama Booksmith (they also have a few other signed books available).

Order The King of Shadows from Lividian Publications | Alabama Booksmith (signed) | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | B&N

Audiobook: Audible US | Audible CA | Amazon UK | Audible AU

Ebook: Kindle (Amazon US) | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AUBarnes & Noble  | Kobo | Kobo CA | iTunes | Google


From the Lividian Publications website:

Lividian Publications is proud to be publishing a deluxe trade hardcover edition of The King of Shadows by Robert McCammon, the eighth volume in his acclaimed Matthew Corbett series. This beautiful hardcover edition features new Vincent Chong full-color artwork for the dust jacket.

Retail Price: $37.50
Publication Date: December 6, 2022
Page Count: 472

Please note: this trade hardcover edition contains the exact same text as the Limited Edition, but with different spacing for the interior page design, to reduce the page count and keep the retail price as reasonable as possible in the current market. It’ll still be very readable!

Production Features for the FIRST PRINTING only:
• Full-color dust jacket artwork by Vincent Chong (different from the Limited Edition)
• Offset printed on an acid-free archival quality paper stock
• Hot foil stamping on the spine
• Smyth-sewn to create a more durable binding
• Twine head and tail bands
• Colored endpapers

About the Book:
It’s January of 1704, and Matthew Corbett continues his mission to Italy, accompanied by Hudson Greathouse and former enemy Professor Fell. They seek Brazio Valeriani and information about the mirror created by his father, the sorcerer Ciro. Legend claims the mirror can be used to summon demons from beyond.

But fate has other plans for Matthew as their ship is disabled by a pod of whales, and they seek refuge on a secluded island. The islanders welcome them with a massive feast, but all is not what it seems. As the island pulls them deeper into its influence, the castaways struggle to maintain their grip on reality, even their very identity. Matthew must keep his wits about him and solve the mystery enshrouding the other side of the island, where an active volcano looms and a secretive creature lurks.

The King of Shadows is the eighth installment in bestselling author Robert McCammon’s acclaimed series of historical thrillers featuring Matthew Corbett, a brave “problem-solver” who now faces a challenging foe that threatens to take over his most valuable resource: his own mind.

About the Author:
Robert McCammon is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-six books. He is the winner of five Bram Stoker Awards and a World Fantasy Award. He is best known for Swan Song (1987), The Wolf’s Hour (1989), and Boy’s Life (1991). More recently, McCammon has published The Five, which Stephen King called his best novel ever, and The Border, and is writing the Matthew Corbett series, a nine-book series of historical thrillers that USA Network has called “the Early American James Bond.” McCammon lives in Birmingham, Alabama.

Reviews and Praise:
“Admirers of action-packed suspense with paranormal elements… will find much to like.”
Publishers Weekly

Lividian Publications released the following announcement:

The King of Shadows by Robert McCammon
Signed Copies of the 1st Printing!

We’re very pleased to announce a surprise bonus for The King of Shadows trade hardcover edition, which will be published on December 6.

Earlier this year, Robert McCammon generously agreed to sign signature sheets for this edition, which means that any copies ordered directly from Lividian Publications or one the retailers below will be a 1st printing signed by the author. This includes copies already ordered, you do not need to order again.

Bad Moon Books * Camelot Books * Cemetery Dance Publications * Dark Regions * Kathmandu Books * Overlook Connection * SST Publications (UK Store!) * Subterranean Press * Ziesings

The Alabama Booksmith is also receiving 1st printing copies, but without the signed tip sheet because Robert McCammon will be visiting their store for a launch event and personally signing all of their copies. If you cannot attend this signing, you can also preorder a copy through their website.

Please Note: We’ve received a surge of orders over the last six weeks and we’ve reached the point where Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the other bigger retailers will not be getting first printings. Given the current supply chain problems with the printers, there is no way to rush a second printing in time for pub day, so we will also be publishing this title as a print-on-demand hardcover using the same printer Cemetery Dance used for Gwendy’s Final Task. If you order from a bigger retailer, the odds are good that is what you will receive. They’re still very nice books, and a huge leap forward from where POD was just five years ago, but we wanted to be clear that those copies wouldn’t be part of the offset 1st printing we’re talking about above.

Read more or reserve your copy today!

If you haven’t read this incredible series yet, please visit the The Matthew Corbett Trade Paperback SIGNED First Printing Bundle product page for more information about how you can order the new trade paperbacks including one SIGNED by Robert McCammon.

The world-renowned Alabama Booksmith is now taking pre-orders for signed copies of the trade hardcover edition of The King of Shadows, to be published December 6, 2022! All copies purchased from Alabama Booksmith are priced at normal list price and will be hand-signed by Robert McCammon.

An in-person signing by Robert McCammon at the Alabama Booksmith is planned—COVID permitting—for early December, but the exact date has not been determined yet. Stay tuned!

Pre-order a signed copy of The King of Shadows from Alabama Booksmith

 

As we previously announced, Lividian Publications will release the trade hardcover edition of The King of Shadows in December 2022, after trade paperback releases of the five Matthew Corbett books between Mister Slaughter and Cardinal Black from July through November.

However, the limited edition of the book—which has long been sold out—will begin shipping from Lividian around the end of June 2022.

The trade hardcover edition can be pre-ordered from Lividian Publications. Amazon, B&N, and other pre-order links will be available in the coming months.

I can also now announce that Open Road Media and Audible will release the ebook and audiobook editions of The King of Shadows on Tuesday, June 28, 2022! The audiobook will once again be narrated by Edoardo Ballerini.

Here are the pre-order links for the audiobook!

Update 2022-06-15: Here are the ebook pre-order links!

Here is the cover for the Open Road ebook edition of The King of Shadows.

Share

HUGE news today from Lividian Publications! Check the links below for more information!

Robert McCammon: Smile or Frown?

Lividian Publications: Major Robert McCammon News: 2022 is the Year of Matthew Corbett!

For full details, check the two links above!

The great news is that Lividian is not only releasing The King of Shadows in December 2022, in the months before that, they will release trade paperback editions of the books, beginning with Mister Slaughter in July. The release schedule is:

The King of Shadows (Limited Edition) — June 2022 (depending on slipcase production)
Mister Slaughter (trade paperback) — July 19, 2022
The Providence Rider (trade paperback) — August 23, 2022
The River of Souls (trade paperback) — September 20, 2022
Freedom of the Mask (trade paperback) — October 18, 2022
Cardinal Black (trade paperback) — November 15, 2022
The King of Shadows (deluxe trade hardcover) — December 6, 2022

 

Robert McCammon, June 2021

Hello, all!

I finished The King of Shadows toward the end of April. Since then I’ve been resting up because as I think you’ll understand when you read the book, it was quite a lot to put together. For one thing, it took me a while to refine what began simply as a ‘what-if?’ idea that at first seemed so outlandish and ‘out there’ it couldn’t possibly work. Well, I’m happy to say it did, but not without a lot of thrashing and gnashing. Matthew and Company came through for me once again. I’m pleased to say it’s a hefty book too, running about 560 pages.

I wanted The King of Shadows to be completely different from anything that had come before, and I wanted it to have that ‘weird’ and ‘otherworldly’ edge. Also I became very interested in the backstories of both Cardinal Black and Maccabeus DeKay…how did they become what they are? So you’ll find in The King of Shadows the stories of how the young Adam Black became the infamous Cardinal, and how “Mac” DeKay devolved from being a wealthy young man faithful to his father and involved in the sport of horse racing to being the scarred—and soul-scarred—and masked creature of the ‘present’.

Another thing I wanted to play with was the idea that instead of a human antagonist, a physical place could be antagonistic. Thus you’ll find in The King of Shadows a beautiful Mediterranean island called Golgotha that hides a multitude of secrets, and puts both Matthew and Hudson at risk like never before…but maybe not in the way you would expect!

Next up will be a book of seven short stories involving Matthew, Hudson, Minx Cutter, and Katherine Herrald titled Seven Shades of Evil. Some of these stories have previously appeared in other places, but I believe there will be at least three new ones and two of those will be “novelette” length. Seven Shades of Evil will be sort of a compendium of various “problems” Matthew and Company are called upon to solve during Matthew’s career with the Herrald Agency—these being done in the time between the spans of the regular books—and we’ll begin with one of the earliest events and end with one in his later life.

And so we are moving toward Leviathan, the last book in the Matthew Corbett series. It will be set in Italy and will involve—must involve—the worst of the worst that Matthew has yet to face. As someone from the realm of the past tells Matthew in The King of Shadows: “I have a feeling that Professor Fell will seem as a kindly old uncle bouncing baby Corbett on his knee when you meet who’s waiting for you in the future. Because take it from me, my boy…the worst is yet to be.”

You can take that as truth, because the person who tells this to Matthew is none other than Tyranthus Slaughter, returned from the dead.

So…on we go!

Publication of The King of Shadows is probably not going to be until early in 2022, but I hope you’ll feel the wait was worth it when you read the book. Until then, I’ll be working on Seven Shades of Evil and putting Leviathan together.

I hope everyone has a happy summer, and thank you again for your readership and support. I’m certain that in some other realm Matthew and his companions wholeheartedly thank you as well!

Best Wishes,
Robert McCammon

Robert McCammon has finished writing The King of Shadows! He literally just finished it on Tuesday, so it’s way too soon to know anything about any kind of publication information. But the book is finished, and it’s a big one! The number of manuscript pages is almost identical to what Freedom of the Mask had!
The King of Shadows is book #8 in the Matthew Corbett series. Expect more news in the coming months….