Ballad of the Bone Road - by A C Wise Paperback

Book Synopsis

In the glittering city of Port Astor, where fae roads criss-cross human highways and ghosts whisper to the living, nothing is ever as it seems.

From Sunburst Award-winning author A. C. Wise, this utterly original dark fantasy tale of faith and fanaticism, doomed love and desperate bargains is perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Ava Reid.

Port Astor is a city of ghosts. Once home to the beautiful, brutal courts of the fae, forty years ago they vanished without explanation - and Port Astor decided to forget.

Brix and Bellefeather are paranormal investigators, working to keep Port Astor's wraiths and spectres from consuming the city. Both have hauntings of their own: Belle shares her body with a demon, Belizial; Brix has trapped the soul of his dead fiancée in the world of the living, unwilling to let her go.

While investigating the glamorous and notoriously haunted Peony Hotel, Brix and Belle come across a young couple tangled up in one of the city's most infamous tales. Jimmy Valentine, silver screen idol and one-time favorite of a fae queen, has returned to haunt the Peony. But Jimmy is no mere ghost, and Brix and Belle soon realize his return is more intimately tied to their own hauntings than they could ever have imagined.

The fae have not forgotten that Port Astor once belonged to them. And their Hollow Queen won't give up her kingdom so easily.

Review Quotes

"The ultimate ghost story, many-layered and highly original. Ballad of the Bone Road is both terrifying and irresistible." Juliet Marillier, author of the Sevenwaters and Blackthorn & Grim series

"One of the best horror books of 2026." The Lineup

"A new A. C. Wise book is always something to celebrate. A ghostly heartthrob, a hollow queen, a vanishing hotel room and haunted protagonists - what's not to love? Ethereal, wild and liminal, Ballad of the Bone Road is a fabulous intersection between weird crime and the next wave of the paranormal. Not to be missed." Angela 'A. G.' Slatter. award-winning author of The Crimson Road

"A breathtakingly beautiful and chilling ghost story, Ballad of the Bone Road is like nothing you've ever read before. In these pages, you'll find phantoms, fae, one very glamorous hotel, and so much more. Without a doubt, A. C. Wise is one of the best literary voices of our time, which makes this book a must-read for fans of horror and dark fantasy." Gwendolyn Kiste, four-time Bram Stoker Award(R)-winning author of The Haunting of Velkwood and Reluctant Immortals

"A. C. Wise has created a lush and lyrical world that draws you in and devastates you. I was captivated." Rym Kechacha, author of To Catch a Moon

"Wise infuses her worldbuilding with glitzy gilded age-esque details and builds plentiful supernatural suspense. This is eerie fun. " Publishers Weekly

About the Author

A. C. Wise is the author of Wendy, Darling, Hooked, Out of the Drowning Deep, and Ballad of the Bone Road, along with the short story collection, The Ghost Sequences. Her work has won the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and has been a finalist for the Nebula, Bram Stoker(R), World Fantasy, Locus, British Fantasy, Aurora, Lambda Literary, and Ignyte Awards. In addition to her fiction, she contributes a review column to Apex Magazine and Locus Magazine.