“And which practice is the more abhorrent? Helping a man to die as he would wish, or condemning him to a life of misery and suffering?”

Abhorrent Practices is a fantasy adventure novel, which looks at the issues surrounding assisted dying. It is set in a unique world of independent island states, where there are no great continental land masses. Commerce between these states is almost exclusively by sea. For half the year, the seas recede, leaving each state isolated, perched high on a tall pillar of rock in a dried up seabed. Travel between states during this “Dry Season” is all but impossible.

The novel’s main character, Sandrine, is a Ferryman, an agent of the Order of Charon, a secretive organisation dedicated to helping people end their lives. After almost a decade of faithful service, she is given an assignment which forces her to question the very purpose of the Order and her role within it.

To complete her assignment she must sail to one of the most remote islands in the world, but the onset of the Dry Season is fast approaching, and she will be pursued all the way by agents of the Knights of Endurance, an organisation fiercely opposed to everything the Order of Charon represents.