REVIEW: Ravenor synopsis

Available from The Black Library
Written by Dan Abnett

Synopsis [Spoiler alert] This bit tells you exactly what happens in the book!

Zenta Malhyde, 397.M41. Zygmunt Molotch is trying to excavate Enuncia carvings. As he makes the critical discovery he is attacked by Inquisitorial agents working for Ravenor; Harlon Nayl, Carl Thonius, Kara Swole and Patience Kys. Molotch tries to escape in a flier but is shot down.

Eustis Majoris, 401.M41. Ravenor is investigating the illegal Flect trade. Zael, a teenage Flect addict, is forced to reveal his dealer by Nayl. Meanwhile Kys and Thonius worm their way into Umberto Sonsal's confidence. Swole is attacked by gangers as she follows a lead. She is arrested.

Nayl and Zael fight their way through to Genevieve X, the dealer, but she has already been gruesomely murdered. Nayl and Thonius use their Inquisitorial authority to rescue Swole from Rickens and Plyton of the Magistratum. Kys gets the name of Sonsal's Flect dealer: Drase Bazarof. Sonsal overdoses on Flect.

Kys escapes Sonsal's residence. Inquisitor Ravenor uses his psychic powers to watch the Magistratum investigation. Mysterious men show up. One is Kinsky, a powerful psyker and another is Ahenobarb, his burly minder. Ravenor is chased away by Kinsky. The Inquisitor decides to make planetfall on Eustis Majoris. He brings two more agents; Mathuin and the psychic untouchable Frauka. Thonius takes a Flect from Zael.

The team capture Bazarof along with his friends Lunt and the insane Bergossian. Bazarof confesses that he was supplied with Flects by Duboe from the Carnivora circus.

Kys infiltrates the Carnivora with a group of gangers. Swole poses as an acrobat. Nayl and Mathuin sneak in with fake ID. The team capture Duboe but Kinsky arrives.

Ravenor and his team are taken back to Lord Governor Barazan's palace. Jader Trice, head of the Ministry of Sub-Sector Trade, Barazan's private enforcers, tells Ravenor that Duboe was in league with Feaver Skoh. Skoh is a Xeno hunter who operates with Kizary Thekla, a Rogue Trader. Trice believes that Skoh is using the Carnivora to smuggle Flects with Thekla.

Ravenor and his retinue are joined by Kinsky, Madsen and Ahenobarb. They head for Flint with Duboe in tow.

Kinsky uses his psychic powers to discover that Bartol Siskind knew that Thekla had cancelled his planned trip to Flint. Ravenor interrogates Duboe and gets the words contract 13, but he does not know what they mean. He also discovers that Kinsky has secretly been questioning Duboe.

The authorities on Flint discover Kinsky's use of psychic powers and raise the alert. Kinsky, Madsen and Ahenobarb flee leaving Thonius and Kys behind. Thonius is cornered and has an arm severed in a brutal fight. Ravenor and Kys combine to rescue Thonius.

Thonius has his arm re-attached. Zael starts having psychic nightmares. Ravenor, Kinsky and Madsen clash verbally. Nayl finds Siskind and Ravenor questions him. He discovers that Thekla had set up a meeting with Siskind on Bonners Reach. Siskind and Thekla are distant relatives whose grandparents were directly involved with the Cognitae; a training program for genius malcontents run by a disgraced Inquisitor.

Ravenor and his retinue travel to Lenk. Thonius secretly tries a Flect.

Everyone arrives at Bonners Reach. Swole sneaks onto the planet's surface. Zael's dreams worsen and warn him he is walking into a trap. The team, under ship mistress Preest's direction, meet a trader, Sholto Unwerth. He tells Preest that Thekla is here and that the Flect trade is controlled by Akunin. Madsen, Ahenobarb and Kinsky seize control of the Hinterlight, Preest's ship, which Ravenor and his team are using. Frauka is shot dead. Preest and the agents on the surface are taken prisoner by Skoh's brother.

Skoh boards the Hinterlight to hunt down Kys. Preest and the others are bundled onto a lifter. Swole sneaks aboard.

The lifter docks with the Hinterlight. Swole rescues Preest and the others. Mathuin kills Skoh's brother in the process. Mathuin and Preest head to the Enginarum to regain control of the ship.

Duboe is released. He attacks Ravenor who has been crippled by a psychic limiter. Kinsky attacks Preest. Kys removes the limiter from Ravenor's chair. Ravenor kills Duboe. Nayl fights his way toward the bridge. Thonius is too cowardly to join the fight.

Ravenor and Kinsky fight psychically. Skoh takes charge. Madsen and Ahenobarb leave the bridge to attack Preest. The Hinterlight is drifting toward Bonners Reach's star. The Oktober Country, with Thekla at the helm, starts shooting at the Hinterlight. He wants Ravenor dead even if it means killing his co-conspirators.

Kys kills Ahenobarb and Madsen. Nayl fights Skoh. Frauka comes back to life and snaps Kinsky's neck. Ravenor knocks Skoh unconscious. He also forces Thekla to lower his shields so that he can fire missiles at the bridge of the Oktober Country. Thekla dies.

Ravenor interrogates Skoh. He reveals that contract 13 is an arrangement between a consortium of Rogue Traders and the Ministry of Sub-Sector Trade to recover tech salvage from the Mergent Worlds. The Flect trade was a side enterprise. They lured Ravenor into a trap at Bonners Reach to kill him away from the power of the Imperium. The Flects are shards of broken glass from the ruined Hive cities of the Mergent Worlds, tainted with Chaos.

Thonius secretly recovers Flects from the Oktober Country. Ravenor approaches Unwerth to take his team back to Eustis Majoris as the Hinterlight is too badly damaged. They will go back secretly as everyone thinks they are dead and they do not know who they can trust.