This story was absolute FUN to write. Yes, I have fun writing all my stories. Readers can see it in the humor I imbue in those tales, even when the topics are serious. But there was a different kind of freedom with The Dead Cat Tail Assassins. I wasn’t bound to our world. Or our histories. I wasn’t trying to deliver some deeper message on real-life colonialism or racism or the like. I set out to just tell a story that was fast-paced, punchy, full of action, thrills, and, when called-for, sheer hilarity. As I pitched it to my editor, this is John Wick meets Dungeons & Dragons.
― P. Djèlí Clark, Disgruntled Haradrim
What booksellers are saying about Dead Cat Tail Assassins
- Clark has a way of drawing you in immediately to his elaborately created and detailed worlds of magic and mystery. You’re immediately thrown into a city in the midst of festival revelry where an incredibly deadly (and also dead) group of assassins are on the prowl. I love how Clark can make you feel so much empathy and compassion for an assassin; how his stories revolve around a code of ethics. Really well done and a lot of fun!
― Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina | BUY
- First of all, you have to love a god that’s the patron of both assassins and chefs. This is another banger from Clark. So much vicious fun. Highly recommended!
― Robin Wood, Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida | BUY
- A bloody romp of a good time—The Dead Cat Tails Assassins has the world-building of an epic without the overwhelming page count. It’s one of the most vivid and engrossing fantasies I’ve read in years. Absolutely not to be missed.
― Courtney Ulrich Smith, Underbrush Books in
Rogers, Arkansas | BUY
- The Dead Cat Tail Assassins leads you astray, trips your feet out from under you, and then dunks your head underwater, all in the span of one night. This novella is an action-packed romp through a gloriously rich and well-defined world. Clark crafts a succinct and enthralling story that carries you through till the last page, offering a wide cast of vivid characters (mostly assassins) who capture your attention and your heart. On top of all of that there lies a time paradox to challenge and twist your perception of the world itself.
― Faith Skowronnek, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in
Chapel Hill, North Carolina | BUY
About P. Djèlí Clark
Born in New York and raised mostly in Houston, P. Djèlí Clark spent the formative years of his life in the homeland of his parents, Trinidad and Tobago. He is the author of the novel A Master of Djinn and the novellas The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, Ring Shout, The Black God’s Drums, and The Haunting of Tram Car 015. He has won the Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards and been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Sturgeon Awards. His stories have appeared in online venues such as Tor.com, Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Apex, Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and in print anthologies, including Griots, Hidden Youth, and Clockwork Cairo. He is also a founding member of FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction and an infrequent reviewer at Strange Horizons.
