Alex Verus

In Fated, the opening novel of the Alex Verus series, Alex Verus runs a magic shop in London—an unassuming front for a world hidden beneath the surface of everyday life. His gift is not the flashy destructive power favored by other mages; instead, he can foresee possible futures, a subtle but formidable talent that has kept him alive through situations that should have killed him. When multiple factions simultaneously approach him to help crack open a relic from a long-ago mage war, Alex knows immediately that what's inside must be extraordinarily dangerous.

Using his abilities to calculate the odds, Alex can see that taking the job makes his survival chances vanishingly small—but refusing may not be an option. Fated introduces a richly realized urban fantasy world where political factions of mages vie for power and an ordinary-seeming shopkeeper turns out to be anything but. Smart, tightly plotted, and full of dry wit, it is an assured series debut that rewards careful readers who pay attention to the details Alex notices before everyone else.

London mage Alex Verus, infamous for his second sight and past defeats of dark mages, is dragged into a dangerous conspiracy. He uncovers the resurgence of a forbidden ritual: the harvesting of magical creatures' life-force, destroying them, with humans next on the agenda. Hired to investigate, Alex soon realizes not everyone on the Council wants him digging deeper. Struggling to distinguish ally from enemy, he becomes the target of those risking their sanity for power. Despite his ability to see the future, his own future hangs precariously as he navigates a treacherous web, facing enemies determined to silence him permanently.

Once a recluse, Alex Verus has embraced the magical world, building a formidable reputation for his future-seeing insights. Now, with his apprentice Luna, his unique investigative talents are highly sought after. But picking employers is tricky, as everyone, including a beautiful woman hiring him to run security for a prestigious tournament, has motives Alex finds unpredictable. His latest gig, however, plunges him into a dark mystery:

Apprentices are vanishing without a trace, and someone on the Council could be involved. Alex has no evidence, no witnesses, and no suspects, yet he knows he’s being watched. When assassins target Luna's classmate, he realizes the danger is far greater than he imagined—and he could be the next to disappear.

In Chosen, the fourth installment of the Alex Verus series, Alex's past as an apprentice to a Dark mage resurfaces with brutal force. Rumors are spreading that his former master is returning, and with those rumors comes a young adept consumed entirely by a desire for revenge against Alex for the things he did in that earlier life. Alex has worked hard to become someone different—but the misdeeds of his past are not so easily outrun.

The situation forces a painful reckoning: his friends, including his own apprentice Luna, are putting themselves at risk on his behalf, and they deserve to know the full truth of who he was. As the threat of his former master looms and a determined adversary closes in, Alex must confront whether the version of himself he has built since leaving that life is strong enough to protect the people he cares about most—and whether those people will still want his protection once they know everything.

In Hidden, the fifth book in the Alex Verus series, the fallout from Alex's revealed history has fractured his relationships. Anne Walker has cut ties with him entirely and withdrawn from the mage community after being expelled from the apprentice program. As a favor to his own apprentice Luna, Alex checks in on Anne—and is firmly told to stay away. Then Anne disappears entirely, taken into the shadow realm of Sagash, her former Dark mage mentor, by forces from her own troubled past.

Working alongside the Council Keepers of the Order of the Star, Alex and Luna must find a way into Sagash's realm and get Anne out before her captors make permanent use of her. Complicating everything, fresh evidence suggests that Alex's former master has returned to London—his agenda unknown, his presence a shadow over every decision Alex makes. Hidden tightens the series' web of past and present threats while moving its characters deeper into the moral and personal entanglements that define the Alex Verus world.

Diviner Alex Verus thought he’d escaped his past, but his old master has returned to Britain, making a new play for power and targeting Alex. With his former teacher back, and his relationship with the magical Council already strained, Alex is desperate for allies. He accepts a job with the Keepers, enforcing magical law, even forming an uneasy alliance with his new partner, Caldera. However, his attempt at legitimacy quickly turns lethal. A mission puts Alex in possession of a powerful item that factions both inside and outside of the Council would kill to acquire. Caught in the middle of a deadly conflict, Alex must use all his abilities to navigate treacherous waters, figure out who his true friends are, and survive against enemies hiding on all sides.

In the seventh book of the urban fantasy series, Diviner Alex Verus faces his deadliest challenge yet. Having made too many enemies on the Council of Mages, one powerful foe has issued an execution order against him. While fighting for his life is nothing new, this kill order uniquely extends to his dependents: Luna, Anne, and Vari. With only a week to act, Alex is determined to protect them, even if it means disassociating from his friends and scrambling for new allies on the Council. His desperate fight for survival will inevitably lead him into direct conflict with his formidable former master and the dangerous Dark mages loyal to him. This time, escaping with his life might demand a far greater sacrifice: his very soul.

Alex Verus, a powerful diviner, finds himself in an impossible situation. Haunted by his apprenticeship to the notorious Dark mage Richard Drakh, Alex is now forced to work for his old tormentor and a deadly ally once more. His motive is simple: protect his friends from harm. The stakes escalate when Alex is compelled to bring the life mage Anne into this dangerous servitude alongside him.

After weeks of being hunted and finally cornered, Alex's life was spared at a terrible cost he never anticipated. With his future-seeing abilities, the normally resourceful diviner can perceive no escape from the clutches of Richard, leaving him caught between an inescapable past and an equally perilous present.

Mage Alex Verus, often finding himself barely hanging on, is thrust into an unwelcome position on the Light Council. Realizing that protecting his friends demands a shift, Alex understands he must now become a power player himself. His immediate, dangerous mission: hunt down the various magical items unleashed into the world by Dark Mages. However, the Council soon demands his unique skills for an even more perilous task—negotiating directly with these perpetrators. Alex must employ all his cunning and magic to forge a critical deal. With tensions escalating between the Council, the Dark Mages, and the wider adept community, Alex is the only one who can prevent an all-out magical war and stop a devastating bloodbath.

In the tenth urban fantasy novel, mage Alex Verus finds everything on the line. Once a quiet diviner, Alex is now a successful member of the Light Council, having found friends and love. However, this success comes at a steep price: the Council is investigating him, and if they uncover the truth, he stands to lose everything.

Meanwhile, Alex’s old master, Richard Drakh, is waging a brutal war against the Council and is preparing a move to bring both Alex and the life mage, Anne, under his control. Caught between Richard’s machinations and the suspicious Council, Alex’s time is running out. To protect those he cares for, Alex Verus must transform, becoming “something different. Something darker…”

London-based mage Alex Verus returns, forced to embrace his dark side to protect his friends. However, life mage Anne has also profoundly changed, bonding with a dangerous power. She's now pursuing a ruthless vendetta against everyone who has wronged her, threatening widespread destruction.

Simultaneously, Alex must confront his arch-enemy, Levistus. With the Council's death squads hunting both Alex and Anne, Alex realizes the only path to survival is to decisively end his protracted war with Levistus and the Council. He must leverage every resource and strategy at his disposal to outmaneuver the powerful Council and prevent Anne from unleashing chaos upon the world.

In Risen, the twelfth and final novel of the Alex Verus series, Alex faces the culmination of everything the series has built toward. His lover, the life mage Anne, has fallen completely under the control of a deadly entity she once bargained with, and that creature is now moving to create an army of magically dominated mages. To stop it, Alex must broker an extraordinary and deeply unstable truce with both the Council and the Dark mage Richard Drakh—adversaries who have no intention of keeping that truce any longer than necessary.

The alliance is a race against mutual betrayal. Both the Council and Drakh would sacrifice Anne without hesitation to neutralize the threat, and Alex knows it. He must find a way to destroy the possessing entity and free Anne before his supposed allies turn on each other—and on him. A powerful close to the long-running urban fantasy series, Risen delivers on years of accumulated tension and forces Alex into the most impossible calculation of his career as a diviner.