Spilling Book Two’s Secrets

It is with great and glorious pleasure that I announce I have liberated this Substack from the slow-typing fingers of Edith Birde, thereby allowing the two mysterious sisters to devote their full attention to writing Book Two of The Nine Gentlemen series. It is a noteworthy sacrifice on my part, I assure you.

Please be advised that from now on, all updates shall come from a far timelier and infinitely more reliable source.

Me.

The Tattler.

During a recent interview with Edith Birde, I proved charming enough to coax significantly more information from the sisters than they intended to reveal. Among their most surprising admissions was that they consider Because I Killed Him merely an introduction. Book Two, they assured me, is where the Civilized World’s best-kept secrets begin to surface.

But before we venture any further, let us revisit where Because I Killed Him left us.

In the novel’s closing moments, Loredana Waldsten accepted a perilous assignment from the brilliant, energy-drink-addicted Professor Jerome Glass: to work undercover as a Brasscoat informant and infiltrate the Flamingo Club, a covert network of Heretic students operating at Grandmaster University. It is a dangerous occupation, to be sure, and not merely because discovery carries a death sentence.

Any fool can tell a convincing lie once. The true challenge is living one.

As Loredana will soon discover, the only Brasscoat informants who survive are those who lie well enough that, sooner or later, even they come to believe their own fabrications.

Here, my dear readers, is where the matter becomes deliciously complicated. What happens when the Heretic students you’ve been sent to deceive earn your sympathy? And when the mission inevitably demands that you sacrifice someone who no longer feels like the enemy, which side of the lie will you choose?

With Edith Birde now serving as my official source, I feel entirely confident in sharing a few additional tidbits. Rest assured, nothing that follows shall be idle gossip.

First, Loredana Waldsten will once again serve as Book Two’s principal narrator. She will not, however, be alone. The novel will also include a substantial number of chapters told from the perspective of Edmund Prew, the dashing yet formidable high-citizen student whom I enjoy investigating almost as much as I enjoy a fine pair of alligator leather shoes.

Fortunately for you, that was hardly the only information I managed to extract. Allow me to continue today’s briefing with a rapid-fire report:

• Every title in The Nine Gentlemen series begins with the word Because. I am informed that all five titles have already been chosen.

• Edmund Prew’s older brother, Richard, finally makes his entrance in Book Two. (Character art is forthcoming, and I have already begun gathering gossip about the pose he has chosen to immortalize himself in.)

• A significant romantic subplot awaits. Naturally, I attempted to determine whether it involves Loredana and Edmund. Edith Birde declined to comment.

• The title of Book Two will be revealed on September 15, 2026.

• The official cover of Book Two will arrive before year’s end, while the synopsis remains under lock and key until 2027.

To conclude this exclusive report, I shall leave you with the header quote from Chapter One of Book Two. Edith Birde most certainly did not authorize me to share it, but had the sisters wished otherwise, they ought to have kept their computer screens out of my line of sight.

Edith Birde assures me that even I will be surprised by the revelations awaiting in Book Two. A bold claim, considering my well-earned reputation for knowing everything worth knowing. I remain skeptical.

The sisters insist the manuscript is progressing at a satisfying pace and, more importantly, seem thoroughly pleased with the story they’re crafting. I intend to monitor their progress with my customary diligence and return with additional intelligence as soon as I acquire it.

Until then, remember this: never doubt my reporting, for no one pursues the truth more virtuously than I do.