Steven Bauer always thought chess was just a game....

Until the sultry brunette in the little black dress did her best to incinerate him.

Yesterday, he was just an ordinary guy. Today, he is the White Pawn, a combatant in a nightmarish game of chess where people are the pieces, and the world is at stake. To survive the deadly Black Queen, Steven must pull together the rest of his pieces.

The Knight, a grieving teenage boy caught up in a web of gang violence.

The Queen, a young woman at death’s door, her body ravaged by leukemia.

The Bishop, a disgraced priest haunted by visions of the game.

The Rook, a suicidal drunk reeling atop a storm-ridden skyscraper.

But Steven isn’t the only one looking for his team, because the Black Queen already has her pieces assembled....

Pawn’s Gambit is the first book in The Pawn Strategem, a new contemporary fantasy series from author Darin Kennedy (The Mussorgsky Riddle).