My newest book, “This Darkling Magic,” is part 3 of my Rift series. “Sing the Midnight Stars” and “Flight of Shadows” are books 1 and 2, respectively. Part of the synopsis of “Sing the Midnight Stars” sums up the content of the first four books: A cold-blooded killer lusts for others’ magic. A drug-addicted detective vows to thwart him. Dragged into a dangerous murder investigation, Andrin Sethuel alone stands between the killer’s murderous desires and his future victims’ salvation, the Torvian kingdom’s freedom and its enslavement.

Because each of the first two books is a cliff-hanger, as is the third, I can’t go into much detail about “This Darkling Magic” without introducing spoilers.

Maybe you should tell us about those books then.

“Sing the Midnight Stars” involves Andrin’s hunt for the killer while civil war and an invasion by an ancient enemy loom, all against the backdrop of the quest for magic that’s unfettered, free of its prosaic bonds of stone and sigil. Andrin’s search for the murderer turns into a fight for his life. Lies and duplicity threaten to rip his only friend from him, and she’s keeping a secret that could be the key to solving the murders. Andrin is forced to choose between his friend and his duty, and ultimately between his king and a betrayal that will save his country from a ruthless conqueror’s invasion.

In “Flight of Shadows,” Andrin continues tracking the killer as the enemy occupies Torvia with the blessing of its king and all but conquers the country by law and edict. But the king is sinking into madness, and when he agrees to a tribute of his subjects to the emperor, the prince knows the time has come for him to overthrow his father—and a subversive sect within the kingdom decides the time has come to kill the prince and Andrin. The Torvian resistance strikes and war breaks out, pitting Torvians against their traditional enemy and one another, ripping loyalties apart. In the face of his country’s downfall, Andrin finds that his fate has become intertwined with that of a creature called Rift, which after centuries of sorcerous imprisonment has been released to stalk him, hurtling him toward a destiny that could destroy him.

What can you tell us about This Darkling Magic?
“This Darkling Magic” resumes the tale. Magic is failing because of a necromancer’s necrotic influence. Consequently, an unlikely alliance is born, its goal the destruction of the sorceress. Although she’s bound by enchantment, her necromancy, enhanced by the spirits of the dead she harbors and commands, confers on her the power to kill all those who bear a certain sigil and gives her the might to bring the Torvian kingdom to an end.

And there you have it…so far. To avoid bewilderment and the sure consternation that follows from being plunked down smack-dab in the middle of something you really needed some context for, you should read the series in sequence, starting with “Sing the Midnight Stars.”

What genre are these novels?
Epic fantasy.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
Although the genre is epic fantasy, the books are rife with intrigue and suspense, so anyone who likes those elements will like my books, even if they don’t normally read fantasy.

Is there anyone else out there producing similar work?
Stephen R. Donaldson.

Tell us a little more about Andrin.
Andrin Sethuel has survived a childhood that should have destroyed him. Slavers brutally murdered his parents in front of him, ripped him away from everything he knew, and addicted him to drugs. The aftermath leaves him warring against hostility, prejudice, and suspicion on every front. And it leaves him entrenched in self-loathing. Yet despite the odds, he becomes head of the Torvian kingdom’s criminal investigative forces.

The first two books delve a little into the psychology of being an addict, but not heavily. It’s done from Andrin’s point of view, and I use it as a vehicle for explaining his interactions with the other characters. (As you may have surmised, the books are a wee bit genre bending.)

What does This Darkling Magic even mean?
“This Darkling Magic” is a phrase the necromancer uses in the narrative in regard to destroying others’ magic, the goal being to kill them.

The next book in the Rift series is “This Strange Magic” (another title I stole from a phrase in the narrative), which will be out in August 2013, if all goes well.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m a freelance medical editor. People usually get a vague, puzzled look in their eyes when I tell them what I do, so for those who really, really want to know what a medical editor does, this is it in a nutshell: I edit articles written by physicians for medical journals. I live in Oklahoma but yearn for Hawaii. Someday…

Have you got a website?
My website, a work in progress, is located at http://cmjwallace.com/

What about social media?
My Facebook page is also a work in progress. Search for CMJ Wallace or use https:// www.facebook.com/cmjwallacerift.

What’s next?
I’m writing the fifth book in the series and have begun outlining the sixth, which may be the last. But we all know how that goes. If that’s it for the Rift series, I’ve got two other books partially written, one fantasy and one murder mystery. I’ll flip a coin and go from there.