Janna had everything. A gifted athlete who spent her life avenging the victims of the war on her home planet. However when she found herself under serious attack she didn't think that she could survive. Her body and face virtually destroyed, she dragged herself back in order to punish the guilty. More machine than woman the Maiden had risen.

Although the battle may not have changed the battleground most definitely has. Her enemies have now come to Earth and Janna isn't far behind.

Jon Tyler is a forensic scientist. When he is called to a crime scene to investigate the grizzly murder of "Ronny the Rat" he finds an eviscerated body and witnesses who speak of the murder being committed by a "Knight in Shining Armour". On interrogation this description changes to "A woman in shining armour". Surely this must be the influence of drugs?

Whilst all this is going on Caroline Kruger, an investigative journalist is getting sick and fed up of the pathetic stories being reported on her TV programme, The X Show. She has had enough of crop circles and alien abductions. She wants a story she can get her teeth into. So when she reads the newspaper headlines about a metal-clad crusader prowling the streets and destroying the guilty she wants to know more.

The Maiden: Out of the Ashes is a dark threatening novel set in a grim underworld against a backdrop of an intergalactic grudge match. The story revolves around Jon Tyler, an unusual forensic scientist who is known for wearing a huge fur coat regardless of the temperature; Caroline Kruger, a feisty investigative journalist who will go to any length to get her story and The Maiden, a cyborg who has survived a vicious attack and has now set out to punish the guilty.

The story is written in a series of frequently short chapters written from the point of view of various characters. It is a very dark writing style that doesn't pull any punches. It is compelling to read and keeps you hooked until the very last page. The short chapters actually give the story its own momentum that just keeps going.

I have read other novels by Karen Koehler and with The Maiden: Out of the Ashes she has maintained her high standard of writing. The only difference I would mention is that where the Slayer books are, to me, dark fantasy, this is most definitely science fiction with a definite industrial feel.

Absolutely superb – a whole new meaning to the phrase "Iron Maiden".

Synopsis
Femme Fatale...

Once Janna was a brilliant athlete and champion who dedicated her life to avenging the victims of her home planet's holocastic war. Then she became a victim herself, her face and body destroyed beyond recovery or recognition by sadistic warmongers.

They thought she was dead. They thought they had destroyed her for all time.

They were wrong. Something survived.

Now Janna, as much machine as woman, has returned to punish the guilty and the unrepentant. The Maiden is rising to unleash her fury on all those who remain, and all those who are responsible.

The arena has changed, for her enemies have arrived on Earth, bringing their intergalactic grudge match to our world. Now Janna is coming for them--and anyone else who stands in her way. An unholy creation with only one prerogative in her unnatural life: take revenge or die trying.

And now all the Hail Marys in the world won't save you.

#1 in a hot new science fiction series by the acclaimed author of Slayer, The Maiden: Out of the Ashes and Scarabus!

The Maiden #1: Out of the Ashes a novel by Karen Koehler, based on characters created by Karen Koehler, Wayne Heath and Robert Wallace. With cover art by KHP Studios in association with Majik.