Four Dead Queens

Astrid Scholte

Feb 2019 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

Four dead queens. Three days to catch a killer. Two forbidden romances.
One shocking twist you won’t see coming.

Seventeen-year-old Keralie Corrington may seem harmless, but she’s, in fact, one of Quadara’s most skilled thieves and a liar. Varin, on the other hand, is an honest, upstanding citizen of Quadara’s most enlightened region, Eonia. He runs afoul of Keralie when she steals a package from him, putting his life in danger. When Varin attempts to retrieve the package, he and Keralie both find themselves entangled in a conspiracy that leaves all four of Quadara’s queens dead.

With no other choices and on the run from Keralie’s former employer, the two decide to join forces, endeavoring to discover who has killed the queens and save their own lives in the process. When their reluctant partnership blooms into a tenuous romance, they must overcome their own dark secrets in hopes of a future together that seemed impossible just days before. But first they have to stay alive and untangle the secrets behind the nation’s four dead queens.

An enthralling fast-paced mystery where competing agendas collide with deadly consequences, Four Dead Queens heralds the arrival of an exciting new YA talent.

Ratings and reviews

In the fantasy world of Quadara a teenage pickpocket and her mark will find themselves in the middle of a plot to kill the standing queens and shift the political power. Four Queens is a tale of intrigue and ambition, filled of twists that managed to surprised me more than once. The plot captured my interest since early on and I enjoyed the story, but something prevented me from actually loving it. I felt it was a bit Hunger Games meets Logan's Run and, though it wasn't boring, it was too long for my taste. Still, the story is a very good one for a debut author.

Four Dead Queens is a stand alone fantasy with potential to become a series- maybe we’ll get lucky and be gifted with more of Quadara?? The kingdom of Quadara is separated into four quadrants, each having their own way of life and a queen to protect them and ensure that the quadrants remain loyal to their traditions and lifestyles. Although we get a brief overview of the world-building, I would love to learn more about the quadrants. The Queens, in turn, are controlled by the system of Queenly Law. They are not allowed romantic love, not allowed to ever return home after taking the throne, must produce an heir by the age of 45 (with a donor selected from a party), among others. Life in Quadara is a life of strict prohibition for the constituents and the queens, but, in a restrictive society, there are always the rebels. Keralie is a professional pickpocket. When Mackiel, her mentor, selects her next target to be a government messenger, Varin, everything goes south. Kera and Varin are thrown together and discover a video describing the deaths of the four queens. Can two teens from different quadrants save them in time? I enjoyed the dynamic between Kera and Varin. She was raised in Toria (the intellectual quarter) by a loving family but left after her father suffered an accident and embraced the thrill of the underworld. He was raised in Eonia (the futurist, technological quarter) and never met his parents who had been genetically matched and was raised not to show emotion. As their relationship develops, we see them both sharing their views and understanding there is more than what they have always been taught. A pleasant surprise is how we are introduced to a lot of the world building through the personalities and lives of the queens. The title implies the queens have been murdered, but we are given a background and a storyline for each as their tales are told. Overall, Four Dead Queen is an impressive debut and I look forward to seeing more from Astrid Scholte.

I don't think I've ever read a fantasy/ murder-mystery novel before, and apart from the intense positive buzz and brilliant reviews from other authors I DEEPLY ADMIRE, I think the genre-bent element of the Four Dead Queens was what made me NEED to read this book. I'm not the biggest murder-mystery fan, but SFF is my FAVOURITE genre and I'm always looking for new twists to it. Four Dead Queens in a nutshell: I loved the fast pace of the book, and the alternating viewpoints and learning about the quadrants and the queens, but I feel like the structure of the book was lacking THOROUGHLY. IN MORE DETAIL: 1) So, OBVIOUSLY going into a book with one country divided into four different parts with four queens, four mottos and four personalities/ ways of life AND SOME OTHER VIEWPOINTS was disorienting. For the first 50+ pages, I was frantically flipping back from the page I was currently reading to the one where it was all broken down to make sense of the story. I don't enjoy ANY fantasy very much when I'm in the nervous/ what is this world stage and it was the same for Four Dead Queens. 2) After the initial 50-75 pages, I got a little more comfortable with the world and started enjoying the pace and the story. Filled with short, action-packed chapters in which there was almost always a twist, development or a shocking revelation which was enjoyable. 3) I LOVED learning about the queens and seeing the quadrants through their viewpoint. As the story (and their secrets) unraveled, the book got more and more interesting. 4) I did not, however, enjoy Keralie's viewpoints much, and she had A LOT of book-time. --a) Her backstory was filled with holes in reasoning. If she destroyed the boat (and her family business) because of which they were struggling, wouldn't they be left with nothing at all and then would REALLY DEFINITELY BE STRUGGLING? Isn't that why it's called a livelihood? It was this event that made her leave and become a thief and enforcer and I JUST STRUGGLED TO WRAP MY HEAD AROUND THE REASONING OF IT ALL. --b) She, really, didn't seem like a master thief. No cunning, no drive, just luck and a plot with holes. I guess I just didn't understand her character motivations and that was quite important to me. 5) MY GOD THE STRUCTURE MADE NO SENSE. And also, the device used on the assassin to carry out the murders. I found the science, or at the very least, THE EXPLANATION NOT AT ALL SOUND. I know it was intended to shock, but it just left me confused. Would I recommend this book? Honestly, I'm still hung up on the fact that it was a fast-paced, twist-filled novel that is also genre-bent and YES, I would recommend it despite its faults.

About the author

Astrid Scholte was raised on a diet of Spielberg, Lucas and Disney, and knew she wanted to be surrounded by all things fantastical from a young age. She’s spent the last fourteen years working in film, animation and television as both an artist and a manager. Career highlights include working on James Cameron’s Avatar, Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin and Disney’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her fiancé and two cats, Lilo and Mickey. Her debut young adult novel, Four Dead Queens, was an international bestseller and award winner. You can find her posting about books, cats and Disney on Twitter and Instagram @AstridScholte.