Jewels and Rooks (30th April 2026 release)

[Quoth]

Celtic Otherworld XIII

Marion is concerned about the Detective agency that has opened across the street. Neamhain wasn't always the third member of the Morrígna. Originally the leader was Anand, not Badb. In this case it's not "mór" meaning big, greater or older, but an obsolete Gaelic prefix "mor" meaning terror, so Morrígna means Terror Queens. Morrígan is the singular Terror Queen.

About 77,850 words.

The cover is based on “The Valkyrie’s Vigil” by Edward Robert Hughes. The helmet has been edited to be a sleeping Hoodie Crow.

Anand is also variously called Anu, Nainsí or the Morrígan in old manuscripts. The Morrígna are listed as Anand, Badb and Macha or Badb, Macha and Neamhain in manuscripts. Anand (Nainsí/Anu) is also described as taking the form of a grey crow. The Hoodie Crow (grey and black) is similar to the all black Carrion Crow, The ranges in the British Isles or Europe hardly overlap. Macha of the horses is a different character.

The Welsh prefix as in Morwenna or Morgan is to do with the sea, it’s not related to the Irish prefixes.

Sellers for the ebook :
Smashwords Store, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Amazon, Google Play Store, Vivlio, Gardners, Bookshop.org, Tolino & Fable.

DRM free epub on at least Smashwords or Kobo. Please convert to azw3 using Calibre to transfer to a Kindle,especially also models that Amazon is killing downloads for.

Mostly completed by 2019.

Alt Text
The front cover of a novel.
A pale young golden-haired woman in a sleeveless blue dress sitting on a parapet.
She has a "hoodie crow" on her left arm and is holding a large sword.
Her right arm and hand is stretched out over the gap in the battlements.
There is a city below and mountains in the distance.
The top has the title: Jewels and Rooks in a Gaelic script. The bottom has Ray McCarthy, a rook logo, Corvids Press and Celtic Otherworld 13
The cover is based on "The Valkyrie's Vigil" by Edward Robert Hughes.

Conspiracies and Rooks is the first in the Marion and the Rooks sub-series. Though the characters age & develop, and the Otherworld where the Tuath Dé live is advancing rapidly, each novel is a complete story. The events in this follow directly after Goths and Rooks. Tom Óg and the Firebirds will be released soon.

https://www.corvidspress.com/fiction/otherworld-series/

The immediate sequel is now live for pre-order on the 14th May 2026, though "Jewels and Rooks" doesn't have a cliffhanger ending.

"Tom Óg and the Firebirds"

Search with quotes or you'll get Tom Óg, the Kerry sports personality and the UK rock band.

[Quoth]

It's tomorrow as I post this!

The immediate sequel is now live for pre-order on the 14th May 2026, though "Jewels and Rooks" doesn't have a cliffhanger ending.

"Tom Óg and the Firebirds"

Search with quotes or you'll get Tom Óg, the Kerry sports personality and the UK rock band.