The Outlaw and the Upstart King

  The Map of Unknown Things

  The Queen of All Crows

  The Outlaw & the Upstart King

  The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire

  The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter

  Unseemly Science

  The Custodian of Marvels

  Backlash

  Breakbeat

  Burnout

  ANGRY ROBOT

  An imprint of Watkins Media Ltd

  20 Fletcher Gate,

  Nottingham,

  NG1 2FZ • UK

  angryrobotbooks.com

  twitter.com/angryrobotbooks

  The cunning needle

  An Angry Robot paperback original 2019

  Copyright © Rod Duncan 2019

  Rod Duncan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  UK ISBN 978 0 85766 703 8

  US ISBN 978 0 85766 703 8

  EBook ISBN 978 0 85766 704 5

  Cover by Amazing 15.

  Set by Argh! Nottingham.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  Angry Robot and the Angry Robot icon are registered trademarks of Watkins Media Ltd.

  ISBN: 978-0-85766-674-1