Book trailer and excerpt - The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

This popped up on my Twitter feed this morning and I had to share. In a similar vein to Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, this debut novel deals with a shadow-sector of the UK government that deals with the supernatural. The Rook seems to take a more tongue-in-cheek approach, but also includes a fair amount of suspense.


“The body you are wearing used to be mine.” 
So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.
She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Checquy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.
In her quest to uncover which member of the Checquy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.

A trailer has also been released for the book (see below). I like the demonic receptionist, the supernatural needs a switchboard. Also, you can read the first four chapters of The Rook for free. The Rook is set to be published by HarperCollins Voyager (Australia) and Little Brown (US, thanks Fantasy Nibbles!) in February 2012.