20 Hours to Charles Town

"Steampunk political intrigue meets 'upstairs-downstairs' drama at sixty miles an hour."

Twenty hours. Countless factions. One volatile sky.

On September 15, 1860, the luxurious pachyderm-shaped airship The Elephant lifts off from New York City, bound for a covert diplomatic summit in Charles Towne. At the helm is Madame Elvira Starr, the brilliant, sharp-tongued Empress of the Sky, who rules an empire built on elite escorts and high-stakes information brokering. With her is Captain Zulie Dahomey, her fiercely protective lover and the tactical muscle keeping the beast aloft.

The stakes couldn't be higher: a rogue Texican representative carries a terrifying new resource called helium, capable of changing transcontinental travel forever—if the arrogant European colonies don't steal it first. But as the engines thrum, Elvira's meticulous plans unravel. A brutal murder on board, a saboteur cutting the communications, a dark voodoo curse spreading through the crew, and a sudden Liberian military takeover leave Elvira bound and powerless in her own office.

With the Mauverton Detective Agency waiting to ambush them on the ground and a shadowy organization pulling the strings from the dark, Elvira and Zulie must forge dangerous new alliances with pirate queens and double agents. In a game where the highest bidder is never the safest steward, can Elvira regain control of her ship, or will the entire network be shot out of the sky?