{
  "type": "book",
  "site": {
    "name": "The Book Quiver",
    "language": "en-US",
    "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com"
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  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "title": "Dagger Key: And Other Stories",
  "subtitle": null,
  "slug": "dagger-key-and-other-stories",
  "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com/lucius-shepard/dagger-key-and-other-stories",
  "json": "https://www.bookquiver.com/lucius-shepard/dagger-key-and-other-stories.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.bookquiver.com/lucius-shepard/dagger-key-and-other-stories.md",
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Lucius Shepard",
      "slug": "lucius-shepard",
      "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com/lucius-shepard"
    }
  ],
  "language": "en_GB",
  "original_title": null,
  "original_language": null,
  "first_published": "2013-10-31",
  "genres": [],
  "series": [],
  "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/gateway/lucius-shepard/dagger-key-and-other-stories_978-05-7509-186-3.jpg?v=2026-05-20%2005%3A06%3A15",
  "description": "Lucius Shepard is a grand master of dark fantasy, famed for his baroque yet utterly contemporary visions of existential subversion and hallucinatory collapse. In Dagger Key, his fifth major story collection, Shepard confronts hard-bitten loners and self-deceiving operators with the shadowy emptiness within themselves and the insinuating darkness without, to ends sardonic and terrifying. The stories in this book, including six novellas, are: \" Stars Seen Through Stone\" - in a small Pennsylvania town, mediocrity suddenly blossoms into genius; but at what terrible cost? \" Emerald Street Expansions\" - in near-future Seattle, echoes of the life of a medieval French poet hint at either reincarnation or a dire conspiracy. \" Limbo\" - a retired criminal on the run from the Mafia encounters ghosts, and much worse, on the shores of a haunted lake. \" Liar's House\" - in the grip of the legendary dragon Griaule, destiny is a treacherous and transformative thing. \" Dead Monty\" - a small-time New Orleans criminal ventures outside his proper territory, and poker and voudoun conspire to bring him down. \" Dinner at Baldassaro's\" - a gang of immortals debates the future in an Italian resort, only for events to outrun any of their expectations. \" Abimagique\" - a glib college loser falls in love with a witch, becoming an involuntary part of a world-saving - or world-destroying - magical ritual. \" The Lepidopertrist\" - a small boy on a Caribbean island witnesses the creation of preternatural beings by a Yankee wizard... \" Dagger Key\" - off the coast of Belize, the ghost of a famous pirate seems to control a spiral of murder and intrigue; or is someone else responsible?",
  "editions": [
    {
      "title": "Dagger Key: And Other Stories",
      "subtitle": null,
      "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com/lucius-shepard/dagger-key-and-other-stories/9780575091863",
      "publisher": "gateway",
      "translators": [],
      "medium": "ebook",
      "duration_seconds": null,
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      "isbn": "978-05-7509-186-3",
      "pages": null,
      "published": "2013-10-31",
      "language": "en_GB",
      "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/gateway/lucius-shepard/dagger-key-and-other-stories_978-05-7509-186-3.jpg?v=2026-05-20%2005%3A06%3A15"
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  "other_languages": [],
  "characters": [],
  "chapters": []
}