Cover of The Hills Have Spies

The Hills Have Spies

core novel 2018 Valdemar

Record

First published2018
Original language EN
Work typenovel
Canon statuscore
Reader rating4.05 (5,197 ratings, collected 2026-09-12)
Page count336
First-edition ISBN978-0-7564-1317-0
First-edition date2018-06

Synopsis

The Hills Have Spies is the first book of the Family Spies series, set in Valdemar and centered on Peregrine, called Perry, the eldest child of Herald Spy Mags and King's Own Herald Amily. Perry has the Gift of Animal Mindspeech, letting him communicate with wild creatures, and Mags decides to bring him along on an investigation into growing unrest along Valdemar's border, where travelers and peddlers have been vanishing without explanation. Father and son head out with animal companions to gather clues from local wildlife as they venture toward the wild Pelagirs, with Perry eager to prove himself as a spy in his own right. What starts as a training exercise in observation grows into something more serious once the pair, aided by allies who are not entirely human, realize the disappearances point to a danger larger than either of them expected.

Where it sits

  • Universe: Valdemar
  • Series: Family Spies core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
  • Author: Mercedes Lackey

Neighbouring works

Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.

  • Publication order, within the series Family Spies: position 1 of 3: next Eye Spy (2019)

Sources

← Valdemar dossier · All universes

Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.