Shoba Sreenivasan

Mattie Spyglass and the Lady Of My Soul Shoba Sreenivasan

In book three of the Mattie Spyglass series, Mattie and Geeta, the wizards Herman Biddle and Rufus Wigglesworth are on the Fourth Stone of Bitterness of the Path of the Virtuous. Eddie plunges into the Abyss of Blackness, the Hell below Hell to find Trina. Seven Bitter Widows place a curse upon Biddle driving him to madness threatening to destroy the White Book of Magic. Wigglesworth follows a path to a Russian forest to find a cure. Meanwhile, Muhra- egotistic creatures of the underworld once stars of the stage condemned to eternal formlessness, escape from Kurnigi, and travel to grab mortal bodies- including that of Geeta. Set at the midnight hour of October 31, 1936 in Depression-era New York City, Mattie moves in a mystical path formed by the Great Magician and Hoodoo conjurists to revive Geeta. Eddie becomes Ab-gal-u, Captain of the Outlaws of Hell, or He Who Commands the Chariot of the Great Waters of the Underworld to battle the rising Stal, Prince of Demons who has captured Trina. Eddie's eternal love for Trina hardens his mission to rescue her from Stal. Gilgamesh the ancient King of Uruk, who is three-quarters god and one-quarter mortal, follows to rescue Eddie, and falls prey to the Sea of the Abyss. Uri Gneezy becomes the Saghulhaza- the powerful dragon guardian of evil, strengthened by the Dark Master Marduk to overcome the Outlaws of Hell. Several evil entities emerge: the underwater demons, the Roanes, slug-like gray creatures who live in the Sea of Abyss; the Brotherhood of Evil, and the Unholy Trio of Tarnished Knights High Priests of the Abyss. The secret of the ancient entity, Spyglass, trapped in an ancient Babylonian archeological artifact who seeks to occupy a pure soul emerges. While evil rises, though ever divided by treachery, goodness dims.