Walker Books has acquired the UK, Australian, New Zealand and export rights to The Last Hours, a new Shadowhunters trilogy from Cassandra Clare …





The beans are spilled! TLH, yes, stands for The Last Hours.

The Last Hours is a new Shadowhunters series set in 1903. It deals with Will and Tessa’s children, James and Lucie Herondale, as well as Cordelia Carstairs, Charlotte and Henry’s children, Tatiana Blackthorn’s children, the Lightwood kids, and many more. 1903 is right around the time the Victorian era tips over into the Edwardian era — beautiful clothes, fabulous history and so much more that I’m excited to write about! (I’ve even been keeping a crazy Pinterest board for inspiration.)

The title is taken from the book Great Expectations, of which the series is a retelling: those of you who’ve read The Midnight Heir installment of the Bane Chronicles probably have some ideas about certain of the characters!

You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since – on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hours of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. — Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

There will be three books: Chain of Thorns, Chain of Gold, and Chain of Iron — also a reference to Great Expectations.

(“Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.” — Great Expectations)

The books will interconnect with The Dark Artifices trilogy as two separate trilogies that are also the stories of the Blackthorns, Herondales and Carstairs, much like TMI and The Infernal Devices interconnected despite taking place in different time periods and locations. The exact order of publication isn’t decided yet. Lady Midnight, the first of the Dark Artifices, will certainly be the next Shadowhunter book coming out, and I’ll keep you up to date on the publication order when it’s nailed down.

I hope you’re looking forward to reading about Jem, Tessa and Will and their immediate families and descendants as much as I am looking forward to writing about them!