As of me posting this, the book is currently on sale for $2.99 on Kindle – so if you think it sounds interesting, now might be a time to try it.
In helping me establish some of the background for the plot of this book, here is the Goodreads summary:
In the three hundred years since the events of the Mistborn trilogy, science and technology have marched on. Scadrial is now on the verge of modernity, with railroads, electric lighting, and even the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds.
Even with these advances, the magics of Allomancy and Feruchemy continue to play a role in this reborn world. Out in the frontier lands, known as the Roughs, they are crucial tools for those trying to establish order and justice.
One is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn who can Push on metals with his Allomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will. After twenty years in the Roughs, Wax must now put away his guns and assume the duties incumbent upon the head of a noble house – until he learns the hard way that the mansions and elegant tree-lined streets of the city can be even more dangerous than the dusty plains of the Roughs.
So our hero is Wax, or the ridiculously monikered Lord Waxillium Ladrian, who has to leave his position as a lawkeeper in the Wild West-like areas of the Roughs. While he is a legend with his guns, and his Allomancy, a personal tragedy has made him wary of using his skills anymore and since propriety seems to demand that the High Lord of a noble house don’t run around catching common criminals, he instead tries to figure out what to do to make the House of Ladrian slightly more solvent. The answer appears to a marriage alliance to someone with a generous dowry, and the lady Steris appears to fit the bill. Unfortunately, at their first public appearance together, she gets abducted by the Vanishers, the band of robbers/kidnappers who have been plaguing the city, stealing train loads of metals and taking women of good families as hostages.
Wax, his former partner Wayne (who is hilarious) and lady Steris’ country cousin (in reality her illegitimate sister) Lady Marasi, an unobtrusive and quietly clever university student, team up to track down the Vanishers, rescue Steris and hopefully the other missing ladies as well.
