Dan Abnett has spent two decades turning the Inquisition into one of Warhammer 40K’s richest corners, blending detective noir with baroque horror.
Pariah—first salvo of the Bequin Trilogy—returns to that seam and dares the question every fan has asked since Ravenor Rogue: what happens when Gregor Eisenhorn and Gideon Ravenor finally collide? The answer, told through the eyes of a woman who shouldn’t exist, is equal parts puzzle-box thriller and grim-dark morality play.
Plot
Alizebeth “Beta” Bequin wakes each day in Queen Mab, a gothic hive of rain-slick plazas and incense-fogged shrines. She’s a pariah, a psychic blank, and makes rent running discreet errands for scholars and dilettantes. Then a massacre erupts in a doll shop, rival warbands converge, and Bequin learns her identity has been engineered for reasons that could topple sectors. On the hunt: two Inquisitors with shared history and very different definitions of “heresy.” Abnett unspools the crisis in three acts—slow-burn sleuthing, mid-book revelations, and a finale of bolt pistols, warp-taint, and unanswered questions. No single twist nukes the series’ lore, but every clue nudges Bequin (and us) toward a brutal reckoning.
Characters
Bequin’s narration is wry but vulnerable, a quintessential noir lead who trusts nobody—not even her own memories. Eisenhorn shadows the plot like a fallen archangel: charming, ruthless, convinced the ends still justify his increasingly radical means. Ravenor, locked in a life-sustainer and speaking through psy-links, counters with puritanical zeal and colder intellect. Their followers—clerks, killers, psychics, add texture and conflicting loyalties that keep the reader questioning every motive.
Narrative Feel
Abnett’s prose hums with menace and gallows wit. Queen Mab is alive: alleys glow with witch-light adverts, choirs chant litanies in derelict cathedra, and everywhere lurk hereteks hawking “strange clockwork miracles.” Action—when it detonates—is concise, brutal, and often over in a page, leaving psychological fallout to simmer. The early chapters demand patience, but the payoff is a tightening vise of paranoia.
Verdict
Those craving nonstop firefights may fidget during the methodical first half, and the cliff-hanger ending all but demands the sequel Penitent. Yet Pariah shines where Abnett always excels: layered mystery, razor dialogue, and characters whose convictions are as dangerous as any daemon. For seasoned Inquisition fans it’s essential; for newcomers it’s a stylish plunge into 40K’s noir-horror sub-genre—just be ready to chase the next book the moment you turn the final page.
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There is no character named Naw in this book.