Wooden Man, The (Twenty Palaces #1-3) by Harry Connolly; 2011. Hardcover.(Signed by Author)

Ray Lilly is living on borrowed time. He’s the driver for Annalise Powliss, a high-ranking member of the Twenty Palace Society, a group of sorcerers committed to hunting down and executing rogue magicians. But because Ray betrayed her once, Annalise is looking for an excuse to kill him—or let someone else do the job. Unfortunately for them both, Annalise’s mission goes wrong in Child of Fire. With his boss critically injured—and only one spell to his name—Ray must stop a sorcerer who sacrifices innocent lives for supernatural power. In Game of Cages, a secret auction unleashes a predator capable of devouring all life on earth, and it’s up to Ray to catch it before the society’s most powerful enemies capture it first. And in Circle of Enemies, when Ray finds out his old gang is in magical trouble, he will either have to save them...or kill them. As unstoppable as a bullet train from hell, The Wooden Man by newcomer Harry Connolly—who has been lauded by the likes of no less than Jim Butcher and Charlaine Harris(!)—speeds from Seattle to L.A. through a gritty, modern-day landscape where heroes with strange powers battle unspeakable horrors out of the Deeps. Expect collateral damage. Lots of it