In this sequel to the Nebula Award'nominated and Tiptree Award Honor Book that New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire called 'exciting, inventive, and brilliantly plotted," Millie unwillingly returns to the Arcadia Project when an impossible and deadly situation pulls her back in.
Four months ago, Millie left the Arcadia Project after losing her partner Teo to the lethal magic of an Unseelie fey countess. Now, in a final visit to the scene of the crime, Millie and her former boss Caryl encounter Teo's tormented ghost. But there's one problem: according to Caryl, ghosts don't exist.
Millie has a new life, a stressful job, and no time to get pulled back into the Project, but she agrees to tell her side of the ghost story to the agents from the Project's National Headquarters. During her visit though, tragedy strikes when one of the agents is gruesomely murdered in a way only Caryl could have achieved. Millie knows Caryl is innocent, but the only way to save her from the Project's severe, off-the-books justice is to find the mysterious culprits that can only be seen when they want to be seen. Millie must solve the mystery not only to save Caryl, but also to foil an insidious, arcane terrorist plot that would leave two worlds in ruins.
Industry Reviews
* "Everything readers think they know about both worlds will be upended by this enthralling installment."-- "Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW"
"Borderline [is] a strange, fast-paced, and surprisingly dark tale about magic, madness and mystique...Despite the engaging plot, Millie's character, and the complexities in the characters around her made the book a real page-turner for me...Immensely riveting, with unexpected influxes of depth."-- "MuggleNet.com, on BORDERLINE"
"Baker's consistent, caring integration of the realities of disability into the narrative, makes Borderline one of the most purely respectful portrayals of people with disabilities that I've ever had the pleasure of reading, and that in turn makes it an excellent launch to a very promising urban fantasy series."-- "Publishers Weekly STAFF PICK, on BORDERLINE"
"Mishell Baker's new Arcadia Project series is off to a thrilling and glamorous start with Borderline...Baker has given her audience urban fantasy at its finest--visceral and real in its sense of space, and dancing on the uncanny edges of our vision...Borderline is dark and creeping and smart as a whip."-- "Tor.com, on BORDERLINE"
"Baker's prose is a liquid line with light in it, that you can't tell is gasoline until she touches it with a match.... Phantom Pains succeeds in being both seamlessly connected to Borderline and utterly its own ambitious project. I was constantly aware of being impressed with it while being absorbed by it - and I ended up loving it more than Borderline, which is saying something."-- "Lightspeed Magazine"
"Borderline is worldbuilding at its most original...I loved this book."--Charlaine Harris, New York Times bestselling author of DEAD UNTIL DARK, on BORDERLINE