Hunter Black Volume One: Betrayer's Blood is a hard-boiled fantasy; imagine Richard Stark's Parker novels set in Middle-Earth. Hunter Black is a former assassin who wants revenge on those who have done him wrong...before he succumbs to the magical disease with which he has been cursed. The only thing keeping him alive is a magic sword that he has no idea how to wield, and his only friend the ghost of a man he killed. No problem.