Jack Harper Trilogy
3 primary works Complete
Book 1
"Beyond good and evil, Pivot juggles archetypes until you're not sure which ball is airborne and which is still in the author's hand. A story about cracking free of your intended role in life, as plot and depth travel at the same exceptional speed."
-Josh Malerman, author of Bird Box
"Suspenseful and delightfully disturbing (...) This is a promising beginning to the Jack Harper trilogy."
-Booklist
"Impressive and arresting prose drives this vivid debut. (...) Barlow's gorgeous writing will easily propel readers through the rest of the series."
-Publishers Weekly
From the age of seven, Jack Harper is raised by the leader of a mystical cult, Cyrus Harper. Through Cyrus, Jack receives a full education in all usual subjects-economics, literature, mathematics, history-as well as one unique skill useful to a person in Cyrus's position: assassination. With the help of Roland James, a man incapable of dying, Cyrus hones Jack into the perfect weapon to use against all who oppose him.
It is not long, however, before Jack discovers that Cyrus and Roland are not the only ones living in Cyrus's mansion. There, too, exists a mysterious creature in the depths of the house with supposed immortal magic. According to Roland, this creature is responsible for all the miraculous things Jack has witnessed throughout her childhood, including Roland's resurrection. The creature, potent and powerful, only weakens in the presence of Cyrus's red velvet box-a dark, enchanted tool that grants Cyrus his invincibility and ensures his reign.
Lonely and terrified by her life in the cult, under Cyrus's neverending watch, Jack desperately pursues the mysterious being. When they finally meet, her world is turned upside down, as he offers her more than she could have ever expected-the possibility of escape and her own secret, magical power.
Book 2
Jack Harper is a dangerous woman, capable of death and resurrection. Raised and utilized by Cyrus, the leader of a mystical religion, she was once a fearless and brilliant weapon against all who blasphemed. Now, having destroyed Cyrus, Jack is free to be more.
While starting anew, Jack begins receiving letters from children trapped in Infinitum who beg for rescue, and she soon discovers that Cyrus’s cult is alive and thriving, with tendrils branching across the world. One of these tendrils leads Jack to Patrick, a man who speaks of a contraption that “bleaches anything white.” Yet another tendril stretches beyond death, where the Builder and Jack’s brother, Alex, reside. Jack must now seek to permanently destroy the following she once escaped by fixing her sights on a higher target—the infamous demonic Builder, who once supplied Cyrus with overwhelming power.
Potential aid arrives from an unusual source when Jack encounters Jonathon Roth and his kill-for-hire outfit. Combined, they hope to become an unstoppable force, but only the future will tell. Jack may be falling into her old acolyte ways, and Roth may have found in Jack the very thing that made Cyrus so powerful—his own magical being.
While starting anew, Jack begins receiving letters from children trapped in Infinitum who beg for rescue, and she soon discovers that Cyrus’s cult is alive and thriving, with tendrils branching across the world. One of these tendrils leads Jack to Patrick, a man who speaks of a contraption that “bleaches anything white.” Yet another tendril stretches beyond death, where the Builder and Jack’s brother, Alex, reside. Jack must now seek to permanently destroy the following she once escaped by fixing her sights on a higher target—the infamous demonic Builder, who once supplied Cyrus with overwhelming power.
Potential aid arrives from an unusual source when Jack encounters Jonathon Roth and his kill-for-hire outfit. Combined, they hope to become an unstoppable force, but only the future will tell. Jack may be falling into her old acolyte ways, and Roth may have found in Jack the very thing that made Cyrus so powerful—his own magical being.
Book 3
First, she was an acolyte. Then, a rogue. Finally, a catalyst.
Now she’s declaring war on Hell itself.
Jack Harper can raise the dead, and those she resurrects she also controls. She belongs to an ancient race of magical beings called “ferrics,” though she is the first of her kind with this power. Having just escaped Jonathon Roth and his kill-for-hire organization, her new target is the demonic Builder, architect of damnation.
She must act fast, too, because the ferrics’ last countermeasure—a plasmatic weapon—is dwindling away. Meanwhile, her closest confidante, the ferric Lutin, has come under attack, all while her brother Alex joins forces with the Builder to unleash a malevolent new power.
Dying of poison and scrambling for help, Jack turns to an unlikely ally, her charismatic and drug-addled friend, Patrick. She must ask him to help with the impossible: kill the Builder. Whether or not they succeed may not matter because a new threat has joined the battle, an evil ferric bathed in blood, brimstone, and mystery.
Jack will never quit, no matter the odds, but deep down she worries: what if the cure is worse than the disease?