title: The Darkwood Mask: The Inquisitives
author:  Jeff LaSala 
description: Jeff(rey) Michael LoPrete LaSala is an Army brat, an Eagle Scout, and longtime DM all grown up. Three years ago he married an Argentine mermaid named Marisa in a gothic, military cathedral. He now lives in the Bronx, commutes to the day job in Manhattan, and doesn't yet own the mandatory authorial pet (but, oh, he will). At age 16, he received a very encouraging reply to a letter he wrote to R.A. Salvatore, and the inspiration seems to have paid off: <i>The Darkwood Mask</i> is his first novel.
zlib_text: The shrouded �gure strode gracefully past him as though she hadn’t heard him
  at all. Steel blades, as long and slender as rapiers, appeared in each of her mailed
  �sts. Whether an act of magic or mere sleight of hand, the weapons looked real
  enough.
  “Stand down!” Tallis said, hoping to halt the intruder as well as alert the family
  to the danger.
  The shrouded �gure did not heed him.
  “Who dares?” came a furious voice in the next room.
  Responding to the alarm, a well-dressed steward appeared in the doorway with
  a half-drawn blade of his own. The cloth-wrapped intruder thrust both rapiers into
  the man’s torso—one in his stomach, the other near his collar—making not even a
  grunt in the motion. Sputtering blood, the steward toppled. The intruder stepped
  into the room beyond without hesitation.
  Then came the screams.
  
  THE DARKWOOD MASK
  The Inquisitives • Book 4
  ©2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC
  All characters in this book are �ctitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
  is purely