Archibald Lox and the Empress of Suanpan

Archie thought he was finished with the Merge, but he was wrong...

Teaming up again with Inez, they must pit their wits against the infamous Empress of Suanpan.

In a city of gamblers, Archie must stake everything he owns, even his freedom...

About the Author

Darren Shan's real name is Darren O'Shaughnessy (pronounced O-Shock-Nessy, though it can also be pronounced O-Shawn-Essy or O-Shan-essy). Although he is Irish, he was born in 1972 in London. He moved to Limerick in Ireland with his parents and younger brother when he was six, and has lived there ever since.Darren always wanted to be a writer. He bought his first typewriter when he was fourteen and never looked back. He enjoyed his first taste of literary success at fifteen, as a runner-up in a television script-writing competition for RTE in Ireland, with a dark comedy script titled A Day in the Morgue.Darren was seventeen when he finished his first (unpublished) novel, and wrote lots more unpublished novels over the next several years. All of his early books were adult-oriented. Although Darren liked the idea of writing a children's book one day, he considered himself an adult writer first and foremost, and his initial breakthrough was with an adult book, in 1999, titled Ayuamarca (since re-released as Procession of the Dead).In January, 2000, Darren's first children's book, Cirque du Freak, was published. The first book in a series titled the Cirque du Freak series (The Saga of Darren Shan in the UK), it attracted rave reviews and an ever-growing army of fans known as the Shansters! For the next several years Darren focused exclusively on his books for younger readers. First, he wrote a total of twelve books about vampires.He followed up his vampire saga with The Demonata, a series about demons. Running to ten books in total, The Demonata cemented Shan's place as the Master of Children's Horror.Then came The Thin Executioner, a one-off fantasy novel, which Darren has cited as his favourite out of all his books.Next he wrote The Saga Of Larten Crepsley, a four book prequel series to his original vampire saga.Most recently Darren has written about zombies, in the twelve-book Zom-B series. He also wrote a short, tie-in ebook called Zom-B Circus.There was a very successful manga adaptation of Shan's vampire series, drawn by the Japanese artist, Takahiro Arai. It was originally serialized in Japan, but collected volumes are now on sale in the USA, UK and other countries.In addition to writing for children, Darren has published a number of books for adults, starting with The City Trilogy, comprising Procession of the Dead, Hell's Horizon and City of the Snakes.He followed up the trilogy with a one-off supernatural thrilled called Lady of the Shades, only available in the USA as an import.After that he started publishing his adult books under the name of Darren Dash.By 2016, Darren's books were on sale in every continent, in 39 countries, in 31 languages, and have been children's bestsellers in America, Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and other countries. The books have topped adult bestseller charts in Hungary, Japan and Taiwan. In total, Shan's books have sold over twenty-five million copies worldwide.The movie rights to Cirque Du Freak were bought by Universal, and the first movie (which combined elements from the first three books in the series) was released in October, 2009, starring newcomer Chris Massoglia as Darren Shan, along with a wide array of established stars such as Josh Hutcherson, John C. Reilly, Salma Hayek, Willem Defoe and Ken Watanabe. The movie was called Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. It was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in February, 2010.A big film buff, with a collection of more than four thousand movies at home, Darren also reads lots of comics and books, and likes to study and collect original artwork, especially comic art and impressionist and post-impressionist art. Other interests include long walks, watching soccer (he's a Tottenham Hotspur and Ireland fan), listening to pop and rock music, theatre, worldwide travel, sampling the delights of both gourmet cuisine and finger-licking junk food, and dreaming up new ways to terrify his readers!Darren spends most of his time in Limerick, Ireland, with his wife Bas and son Dante.Darren's web site: DarrenShan.comDarren's Facebook page: DarrenShanOfficialDarren's Twitter page: DarrenShan