Line #150 Literature/SecretHistories


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5	[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TMWTGtc12000000000.jpg]]
6	->''"Men are mortal; but Daemons are Forever"''
7	-->-- ''Daemons are Forever''
8
9	Creator/SimonRGreen's ''Secret Histories'' is about Shaman Bond, aka Edwin "Eddie" Drood, black sheep of an ancient, superpowerful family (the Droods) that protects humanity from its nightmares. The books are a take-off of Creator/IanFleming's James Bond books with a supernatural element to them. It consists of a dozen full-length novels and one novella:
10
11	# ''The Man with the Golden Torc'' (2007)
12	# ''Daemons are Forever'' (2008)
13	# ''The Spy who Haunted Me'' (2009)
14	# ''From Hell with Love'' (2010)
15	# ''For Heaven's Eyes Only'' (2011)
16	# ''Live and Let Drood'' (2012)
17	# ''Casino Infernale'' (2013)
18	# ''Property Of A Lady Faire'' (2014)
19	# ''From a Drood to A Kill'' (2015)
20	# ''Dr. DOA'' (2016)
21	# ''Moonbreaker'' (2017)
22	# ''Night Fall'' (2018)
23	* Novella: ''Question of Solace'' (2014)[[note]]Set simultaneously with the first half of book 9; released in the anthology ''Tales From the Hidden World''.[[/note]]
24
25	''Night Fall'' is a {{Doorstopper}} crossover with Green's ''Literature/{{Nightside}}'' series, and is intended (barring short stories) to serve as a GrandFinale for both series.
26
27	Not related ''Literature/TheSecretHistory''
28	----
29	!!This series provides examples of:
30
31	%%* ActionGirl: Molly Metcalf, Janissary Jane, the Bride of Frankenstein.
32	* AIIsACrapshoot: Some sentient Drood creations, like Ivor the Time Train, are entirely happy to serve. [[MurderousMalfunctioningMachine Moxton's Mistake, however...]]
33	* AirborneAircraftCarrier: Used as a secret base of operations by Cassandra, Inc.
34	* AlienAmongUs: One of TheGreys is walking around Harley Street in the first book and The Droods have given a few races of shapeshifters permission to live on Earth if they stay out of the public eye.
35	* AllForNothing: [[spoiler: Alexander King's competition]] is a total sham. The prize doesn't exist (anymore), and it was a put-on so [[spoiler: he could set up a prestigious new identity for himself]], making the competitors' deaths this.
36	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The hungry gods/ the loathly ones.
37	* AngelsDevilsAndSquid: As with the rest of the universe this is set in, the series features angels, demons and Outsiders, creatures from beyond reality.
38	* ApocalypseHow: In ''Daemons Are Forever'', Janissary Jane recounts how a parallel reality had been completely overrun by Hell's demons, forcing her mercenary group to annihilate that ''entire universe'' as a scorched-earth tactic. [[spoiler: A similar doomsday-device is used to destroy the Hungry Gods' home universe at the novel's end.]]
39	* ArcWords: ''"Anything, for the family."''
40	* ArtifactOfDoom: [[HellGate The Apocalypse Door]].
41	** The Droods also have a bunch of them that they keep the Armageddon Codex, such as:
42	*** Oath breaker -- A long stick of ironwood with pre-human symbols. It undoes all agreements, all bonds... right down to the atomic level.
43	*** Torc Cutter -- ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin
44	*** Sunwrack -- For putting out the stars one at a time.
45	*** Juggernaut Jumpsuit -- Possibly makes the wearer invincible
46	*** The Time Hammer -- For changing the past through brute force.
47	*** Winter's Sorrow -- Size of a paperweight. Break it and you unleash the Fimbulwinter: an eternal winter that covers the world.
48	*** Dissector -- the ultimate scalpel created by Baron Von Frankenstein. It can cut through any thing, neat as you like.
49	*** Dominator -- A laurel wreath made from silver. The user's thoughts and wishes becomes other peoples thoughts and wishes.
50	** The Merlin Glass -- can be used to teleport and contact any Drood from the past and future.
51	** The Deplorable End -- a box with a BigRedButton that, when pressed, destroys the ''entire universe'' it's in.
52	** Moxton's Mistake -- A self-driven suit of Drood armor that [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters killed its own inventor]] and despises humanity.
53	** In ''Casino Infernale'', [[spoiler: the Crow Lee Inheritance -- a key booby-trapped to open a portal to a black hole, which sucks in everything in reach including the person who activates it.]]
54	* ArmorIsUseless: Averted except in three instances in the first book, [[spoiler: when the strange matter arrow pierced the golden armor, when Eddie figures out how to merge it with the armor of his opponent near the end, and when dealing with Torc Cutter.]] Other than those times, the golden torc is indestructible as long as it is on.
55	* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Martha Drood dueled three of her own sisters to claim her late mother Sarah's status as Matriarch. Previously, she'd dueled Sarah herself for the right to defy family strictures and wed her second cousin Arthur.
56	* TheAtoner: Mr. Stab, of all people. The reason he's so willing to help Eddie (apart from because Molly asks) is that he wants to make up for the fact he chose to become a vicious serial killer in exchange for immortality. Played with in that he doesn't actually ''stop'' doing the thing he's trying to atone for and is still a total monster 90% of the time. [[spoiler: Eddie finally calls him out for being all talk and kills him.]]
57	* AutomatedAutomobiles: The [=CARnivore=]s, which Eddie's narration describes as "sentient, meat-eating cars with attitude" the first time they appear. Supposedly they're either from another dimension, where cars evolved to replace humans, or are ancient predators native to Earth who learned to look like cars so they can prey on humans without being noticed. Either way, they leech the vitality out of normal cars until they malfunction or are sufficiently weakened from metal fatigue, then force the drivers off the road, usually in the early hours of the morning so they won't be noticed, and devour the driver and any passengers (the hoods conceal their mouths, which are full of churning steel teeth). Eddie has to deal with a pack of them early in ''The Man With the Golden Torc''.
58	* BabyAsPayment: The first book reveals that [[spoiler:every Drood was born with a twin who was sacrificed to the Heart in exchange for their torc.]]
59	* BadassBoast: Despite being in the [[CanonWelding wrong series]], [[{{Literature/Nightside}} Walker]] gets one in ''The Spy Who Haunted Me:''
60	--> '''Walker:''' "I could handle Good Time Georgie if I was unconscious." He smiled easily into Georgie's reddening face, completely unmoved by the man's size or presence or anger. "Are you sure you want to do this? [[spoiler: Are you really sure I don't have my Voice anymore? Would I be here in Strangefellows, without my Voice to protect me?]] Perhaps you've forgotten all the terrible things I've done to you down the years. Or made you do to yourself. You're just a cheap thug, Georgie, whereas I... am Walker. Now go away and stop bothering me. Or I will tell you to do something deeply amusing and so extreme that people will still be laughing about it thirty years from now."
61	* BadassNormal:
62	** Janissary Jane. The Indigo Spirit.
63	** All the Drood field agents when they're not in their armor.
64	* BadassTransplant: Many of the Droods who've never left the manor are formidable in their armor, but haven't kept up their training enough to shine without it. Subverted by Eddie, who's repeatedly proven himself still Badass even when his armor is unavailable, and Martha Drood, who soundly kicked the ass of a far-future supersoldier in a demonstration fight without even touching her torc.
65	* BatmanColdOpen: Books usually open with Eddie in the middle of a fracas, often one that is on the edge of going horribly wrong.
66	* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: Grendel Rex/Gerard Drood]] arranged events up and down the timestream, including [[spoiler: his own imprisonment and nearly everything Edmund Drood pulls]], in order to engineer a comeback, instate himself as a living god, and give humanity an ''extreme'' makeover. [[spoiler: The only reason it doesn't work is that he meets Morgana La Fae, falls in LoveAtFirstSight, and decides they've got better things to do.]]
67	* BattleCouple: Eddie Drood and Molly Metcalf, a {{Magitek}} PoweredArmor secret agent and the Witch of the Wild Woods. %%** Harry and Roger. The Bride and Springheel Jack.
68	* BecomingTheMask: While Eddie doesn't lose sight of his Drood identity or obligations as Shaman Bond, he often remarks that he likes being Shaman, who has no overbearing responsibilities and can be carefree about life, a ''lot'' better than being Edwin Drood.
69	* BedtimeBrainwashing: The Sceneshifters altar reality by manipulating the dreams of the head of their old professor.
70	* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy:
71	** Early on, Eddie mentions that many of the conspiracy theories in pop culture are true. [[spoiler: Mr. Stab began his career and immortality as Jack the Ripper. A family really does (or did) control the world.]]
72	** Played with in ''The Spy Who Haunted Me'', when Eddie and the other competitors must track down the truth behind several stock cryptids and pop-culture enigmas (Bigfoot, [[TheTunguskaEvent Tunguska]], etc). [[spoiler: They all have a basis in something ''much weirder'' than generally claimed.]]
73	* BigBadWannabe: Dr. Delirium. He really is a brilliant scientist, it's just that he's ''terrible'' at all the logistics that go into actually using his discoveries effectively. (It doesn't help that he always insists his ransom be paid in postage stamps.)
74	* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Droods, right from when they are born until they die.
75	* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: Drood Hall becomes filled with this when the villain of ''Moonbreaker'' disrupts the spells which lock away many formerly-hidden rooms, corridors, oubliettes and prisons that the Droods had seen fit to shut away in their own secure PocketDimension, over the centuries. Rather than expanding to contain them, the mansion's once-familiar layout is permeated by wayward chunks of long-lost architecture, furnished in different historical periods, that penetrate it at crazy angles.
76	* BornLucky: Subway Sue can steal other people's luck and use it herself or sell it on.
77	* BottomlessMagazines: The Colt Repeater has infinite ammo and flawless auto-aim. That doesn't mean the bullets always do damage, mind you...
78	* BrotherSisterIncest: Harry is dating Roger, his half-demon half-brother.
79	* BroughtDownToBadass:
80	** Even when a Drood's torc is suppressed and they can't armor up, they're all trained in unarmed combat and usually keep a lot of nasty tricks up their sleeves. Eddie himself holds off an entire horde of Satanists without his armor in ''For Heaven's Eyes Only'', and kicks ass in ''Casino Infernale'''s combat challenges as torc-less Shaman Bond.
81	** Molly remains quite a Badass even when her magic is suppressed or exhausted.
82	* BroughtDownToNormal: Roger, Harry, and company find out at the worst possible time that [[spoiler: a half-demon only has powers when their demonic parent ''wants'' them to. This is brutally demonstrated by the application of quite a lot of damage to a Roger suddenly without his HealingFactor.]]
83	* BuryYourGays: To date, [[spoiler: ''all of them'', except the lesbian clones. Blue dies in ''The Spy Who Haunted Me'', and Harry and Roger die at the end of ''For Heaven's Eyes Only''.]]
84	* CanonWelding / MassiveMultiplayerCrossover:
85	** In ''Daemons Are Forever'' the Droods are revealed to be the ancestors of Giles Deathstalker.
86	** Janissary Jane (in both ''Man with the Golden Torc'' and ''Daemons are Forever'') also appears in the {{Literature/Nightside}} series.
87	** Walker from {{Literature/Nightside}} is a character in ''The Spy who Haunted Me'' [[spoiler: and then reappears after his death to question the now dead Eddie for his new bosses in ''For Heaven's Eyes Only'']].
88	** In ''From Hell With Love'' Methuselah was in the Nightside during the events of ''Agents of Light and Darkness'' and steals an angel's hand, then makes it into a HandOfGlory.
89	*** The Apocalypse Door, from the same novel, is reputed to have been created by Nicholas Hob, from ''Drinking Midnight Wine''. Molly and Isabella are tipped off about the Immortals when they visit Carys Galloway, another character from that novel.
90	** The director of the Literature/GhostFinders appears in ''Live And Let Drood''.
91	** Merlin Satanspawn gave the family the glass which bears his name in payment of a favor.
92	** Dead Boy from the {{Literature/Nightside}} and J.C. Chance of the ''Literature/GhostFinders'' attend the ''Casino Infernale'' Summit meeting [[spoiler: and turn up at the end for the final fight]]. The Little Lord, a minor character from one of the ''[[Literature/ForestKingdom Hawk & Fisher]]'' stories, shows up as one of the gamblers in the Casino itself.
93	** The 23rd-century sexbot Eddie has a fling with in the first novel is actually [[spoiler: Dead Boy's TransformingMecha girlfriend. Yes, Eddie has had sex with ''Dead Boy's car''.]]
94	** The Confusulum, a ''really'' bizarre whatzit that Eddie makes use of in ''The Man With the Golden Torc'', reappears in ''Once in a Blue Moon'', the final book in the ''Literature/ForestKingdom'' series.
95	** Aside from being a ''Secret Histories''/''Nightside'' crossover, ''[[GrandFinale Night Fall]]'' features a guest appearance by Wolfsbane, one of the Infernal Devices from the ''Forest Kingdom'' novels.
96	** Jimmy Thunder, from ''Drinking Midnight Wine'', and Dead Boy, the Doormouse, and Hadleigh Oblivion from the ''Nightside'', all make appearances in ''Property of a Lady Faire''. Dead Boy returns, with Julien Advent in tow, in ''From a Drood to a Kill''.
97	* CastFromLifespan: The price for the pacts Molly Metcalf made with the various powers.
98	* ChallengingTheChief: Martha Drood dueled and defeated three of her sisters to become Matriarch. Subverted by her successor Capability Maggie, who evidently had no surviving sisters with equal claim to the job.
99	* ChekhovsGun: The James Bond like devices Eddie gets. Subverted in ''The Spy who Haunted Me (2009)'' since Eddie never uses the items his uncle gives him to his uncle's extreme frustration. However in ''From Hell With Love (2010)'' he uses the items he didn't use in the last book.
100	** [[spoiler: The arrow that makes it through the golden torc comes back in full force by the end of the first book.]]
101	** Eddie sees an Armoury assistant testing a protein exploder in one book, and Molly gets to wield one in the next.
102	** Played so straight it practically had a big, flashing, neon "This Is A Chekhov's Gun!" arrow pointing to it with [[spoiler: the gray card Eddie receives from the Martian tombs]] in ''Casino Infernale''.
103	* ChekhovsGunman / TheManBehindTheMan / WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[VeryPunchableMan Philip MacAlpine]] [[spoiler: in ''The Spy Who Haunted Me'' he was thrashed by Eddie and Molly he was demoted to MI-13. He then used his contacts to find members of the old satanic conspiracy. Then made himself the leader of the new satanic conspiracy.]]
104	* TheClan: The Drood family obviously. Also [[spoiler: The Immortals]] and the Road Rats.
105	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: William the Librarian is...not all there. He's barely well enough for Harry to bring him home from the institution he was committed to, and he talks to people who aren't there. [[spoiler: Turns out at least one of those people is Pook, who ''is'' there but only selectively visible, and he's only crazy because the Heart made him that way.]]
106	* CombatClairvoyance: The Dancing Fool ''claims'' he's a martial arts master, but he's really a wannabe who benefits from this trope.
107	* ConservationOfNinjutsu: In a heroic example, the more Droods that take the field, the more Droods are likely to die on it, whereas a small team will usually do much better. Justified, as the family isn't an army; they use highly skilled operatives working alone or in small groups. If they ever need a bigger force, they end up having to deploy people who are pretty much newbies to field work. There's also the fact that any threat that requires this kind of large-scale deployment is pretty much by definition ''extremely'' dangerous and capable.
108	%%* ConspiracyKitchenSink
109	* CoolCar: The Hirondel is packed with gadgets: [=EMP=]s, flamethrowers and much much more. Likewise, pretty much every other car Eddie or anyone in his family drives.
110	* TheCowl: The Indigo Spirit is basically a CaptainErsatz for Batman -- except that he has no problem killing people.
111	* DatingCatwoman: Eddie and Molly Metcalf--he's a Drood, she's the wild witch of the woods who believes the Droods are fascists. Also, Roger and Harry--a Drood and a half-demon who might or might not still be working for Hell at any given moment.
112	* DeadToBeginWith: [[spoiler: Eddie in ''For Heaven's Eyes Only'' , he's stuck in limbo in a copy of the Drood hall]]
113	* DefaceOfTheMoon: An ancient Drood who went to the bad carved his face on the moon, and it was apparently a hell of a lot of work to clean up. [[spoiler: Becomes less comedic and a lot more understandable at the end of ''Moonbreaker'', which reveals that it was his ''dead wife's'' face he'd carved, not his own.]]
114	* DestinationDefenestration: When Eddie realizes that the blood-red men have HealingFactor, he starts tossing them out the windows: a pretty effective tactic, given they're on a ''speeding train'' at the time.
115	* DeusExMachina: It's one of those series where you need to be one to ''survive''.
116	* DiabolusExMachina: [[spoiler: Done at the end of ''From Hell With Love'', when an Immortal disguised as Isabella stabs Eddie, then bites his poison tooth and dies while Eddie is slowly dying.]]
117	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: This is done twice. [[spoiler: In the first book the Heart was destroyed. In the second, the Loathly Ones/Hungry Gods are destroyed.]]
118	* DiscriminateAndSwitch: Martha Drood does ''not'' approve of Roger and Harry. Both Harry and Eddie assume it's because she's part of the conservative Drood old guard and therefore doesn't like that Harry's gay. Actually, she's fine with his sexuality; her real issue is that Roger's a half-demon... and also Harry's half-brother.
119	* TheDividual: Maxwell and Victoria Drood: genius lab assistants who work, talk, and act lovey-dovey so much in sync that when they take over management of the Armory from Jack Drood, everyone refers to the pair as ''the'' Armourer.
120	* DoctorWhomage: One of the patients in Saint Baphomet's is a hand that's trying to regrow a new body. It belonged to a Time Agent who accidentally turned himself inside out the last time he regenerated.
121	* DragonRider: The elves that attack Edwin on the motorway ride on the back of hideous dragons.
122	* {{Druid}}: The origin of the Drood family name.
123	* EarlyBirdCameo: When Eddie goes up against Manifest Destiny in the first book, he takes a walk through their containment cells and runs across a half-demon with his tongue cut out. It turns out to be Roger (who, luckily, isn't too fussed Eddie didn't free him).
124	* EarthShatteringKaboom: ''Moon''-shattering, rather, as the titular artifact sought in ''Moonbreaker'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. [[spoiler: The Droods themselves installed it centuries ago as a last-ditch MercyKill device, to be used only in the event humanity were reduced to an AndIMustScream condition in which flying chunks of Moon annihilating the planet would rate as a blessing.]]
125	* EndlessWinter: Ultima Thule is perpetually cold enough to chill Eddie even through his armor. Also, southern Siberia in ''Property of a Lady Faire'' is covered in snow, even though it's stated earlier in the same book that it's summertime.
126	* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Basically every book. If it's not [[EldritchAbomination the Loathly Ones]] trying to take over the planet, it's Satanists trying to bring about literal Hell on Earth, and if it's not ''them'', it's a rogue Drood. [[spoiler: Even the regular Droods ''themselves'' have a strategy in place to initiate this if things get bad enough for humanity - see the EarthShatteringKaboom entry.]]
127	* EvenEvilHasStandards:
128	** Even ''elves'' don't like Mr. Stab. An exiled elf lord is mortally offended that Eddie thinks he might know where the man is.
129	** Subverted, however, when it comes to the war against the Loathly Ones; while everyone ''else'' has standards when it comes to soul-eaters, the elves hate humanity so much that they actually don't.
130	* ExtremeOmnisexual: The Lady Faire was ''designed'' to be this by Baron Frankenstein.
131	* FaerieCourt: The court of the elves. Once ruled by Queen Mab, she was overthrown by Titania and Oberon who cast her into hell and took over. Upon escaping from hell, she creates a civil war between the elves in order to reclaim her lost position as well as get revenge for her banishment.
132	* FantasyKitchenSink: Psychics, aliens, spies, elves, gargoyles, elementals, ghouls, trolls, ogres, gods, gorgons, werewolves, ghosts, zombies, angels, demons, Frankenstein's creations, witches, interdimensional mercenaries, Lovecraftian monstrosities, satanists, superscience of various stripes and a few superheroes to boot.
133	* FateDrivesUsTogether: Subverted by Hell to get an agent cozy with the Droods. [[spoiler: However, Roger actually does fall in love with Harry.]]
134	* FightingAShadow: In ''Daemons Are Forever'', the "Loathly Ones" who are possessing humans are only fragments of the [[EldritchAbomination "Hungry Gods"]] invading our reality.
135	* FirstEpisodeTwist:Start with any book but the first, and you quickly learn that [[spoiler: the Heart was evil and the strange matter/Ethel ends up replacing it.]]
136	* FirstPersonSmartass: Eddie seems to be physically incapable of not snarking.
137	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
138	** The van driver who drops off William in book two makes a quip that ''seems'' like a theatrical ShoutOut. [[spoiler: Then Pook reveals himself in ''For Heaven's Eyes Only'', and you realize the guy really ''did'' have a giant invisible rabbit to deliver next: one that slipped out one stop early, to stick with William.]]
139	** It is mentioned that a certain character's favorite movie is Film/TheWildBunch, which famously ends extremely bloodily [[spoiler: with most of the protagonists dead in a huge shootout.]] Fast forward to the end of the book, and [[spoiler: this character has also gone out with a massive bang, pulling off a heroic last stand.]]
140	* GoldenSuperMode: The Droods' torques coat them in magical InstantArmor that makes them super fast, super strong, InvisibleToNormals and near invincible.
141	%%* GoMadFromTheRevelation: In ''The Spy who Haunted Me''.
142	* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: [=MI13=]. Also whatever unnamed US agency Honey Lake ''really'' worked for, while ostensibly serving the [=CIA=].
143	* GrandTheftMe: How [[spoiler: Eddie himself]] deals with being fatally poisoned by [[spoiler: his AlternateUniverse counterpart Edmund, aka Dr. [=DOA=]]].
144	* TheGreys: One materialises in the street holding a map in the first book as Edwin explains how many supernatural people are walking the streets.
145	* GroinAttack: Several standard examples, plus an exaggerated instance in ''Live And Let Drood'' where Molly subjects her attacker to one with a ''[[DisintegratorRay protein exploder]]''.
146	* HalfHumanHybrid: Roger Morningstar (human/succubus), and the Blue Fairy (human/elf). Half-demons are more common than half-elves, but both are equally mistrusted (and for good reason, usually).
147	* HealingFactor: The Lambton Worm from ''Casino'' (drawing on [[Literature/TheLambtonWorm the original folk-tale]]) and the blood-red men from ''Lady Faire''. Half-demons will also shrug off basically anything, [[spoiler: provided they haven't been disowned by their demonic parent.]]
148	* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: ''Roger''. First he's only pretending to have defected for Harry, then he's ''really'' defected for Harry, [[spoiler: then Hell [[ColdBloodedTorture persuades]] him to rejoin them, then he returns to the Droods at the very last second...]]
149	* HereditaryTwinhood: {{Justified\|Trope}} in the climax of the first book as the AwfulTruth behind the [[AncientOrderOfProtectors Drood family]]. Their {{deal\|WithTheDevil}} with an EldritchAbomination causes all Droods to be born with an identical twin, who is [[HumanSacrifice sacrificed]] to the entity in exchange for magical power.
150	* HeroWithBadPublicity: Eddie himself is branded a traitor in the first book and has to go rogue. In the second book, he calls ''every'' rogue Drood home, sins provisionally forgiven, on the grounds that a nonzero number are probably this, exiled for figuring out something was corrupt at the heart of the family rather than actually being bad people.
151	* HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: Bruce the Sceneshifter jokingly wonders if anyone believes World War [=II=] could have been averted if they gave Hitler back his missing testicle.
152	* HiveMind:
153	** The servitor-drones who run the Medium Games for Casino Infernale. [[spoiler: And who also operate the Shadow Bank.]]
154	** The Loathly Ones share a collective mind, but can compartmentalize information so each drone knows exactly what it needs to.
155	** The Jackson Fifty-Five, mercenary clones who provide security for Casino Infernale, may or may not be an example. Eddie and Molly discuss how it'll be a lot harder to defeat or avoid them if this trope applies.
156	* InformedAbility: Lethal Harmony of Kathmandu, aka Katt, is supposed to be the world's greatest honeytrap. Unfortunately, she doesn't actually get to seduce anybody on-page, due to being surrounded by the people best equipped to resist her and [[spoiler: Honey Lake murdering her within the first couple chapters.]]
157	* InnBetweenTheWorlds: The Wulfshead is a supernatural nightclub that can be accessed from cities all over the world and Eddie suspects it exists in a different time period.
158	* InstantArmor: The Droods' chief asset in their countless world-saving battles is the magical golden (or silver, in a couple of books) flexible armor that retracts into their torcs when it's not needed.
159	* JackTheRipoff: Mr Stab is an immortal serial killer who used to be known as Jack, which implies he might have been UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper.
160	* JerkassHasAPoint: Is Harry nice when he criticizes some of Eddie's decisions about how to run the family? Not in the slightest, and he's definitely playing to the crowd a little in the bargain. Is he completely correct when he says Eddie was a complete idiot to send Droods who ''didn't have torcs'' up against the Loathly Ones, no matter how well-armed they were? Even Eddie has to admit that yes, he is.
161	* KissingCousins: Martha Drood apparently had to fight the previous Matriarch for the right to marry Arthur Drood, her first husband, because they were second cousins.
162	* LightIsNotGood: [[spoiler: The Heart, an otherworldly entity that's embodied as a gigantic diamond of eye-searing brilliance, is a murderous criminal that delights in corruption and infant sacrifice. The original golden armor it provided to the Droods was crafted from the babies their complicit leaders secretly fed to it.]]
163	* MagicalAbortion: Eddie deals with a man who's been impregnated by a demon by shooting him in the stomach with a needle gun that shoots frozen holy water.
164	* MagicalCounterfeiting: An elf in the first book over pays a taxi driver. Edwin says he'd need to bank the money before it touched ColdIron and turned back into a leaf or something.
165	* MagicalDatabase: A particularly literal case, the Karma Catechist is a living database of every spell, ritual and magical concept conceivable in his universe.
166	* MagicalSeventhSon: Droods' torcs can be seen by seventh sons of seventh sons, or seventh daughters of seventh daughters (like Madame O).
167	* MagicMirror: The Merlin Glass is Eddie's go-to scrying and transportation artifact, and probably the Droods' most useful magical artifact. Certainly, it's prized enough that the family keeps pressuring Eddie to return it. Fat chance, is Eddie's response.
168	* {{Magitek}}: All over the place. The Drood armor, the Flying Saucerers and the Chelsea Lovers.
169	* {{Matriarchy}}: They've tried other leadership structures, but the Drood family has a long history of defaulting to an autocratic, hereditary female ruler. When Eddie insists that they should start electing their leaders, the former Matriarch calls it an "experiment". And then she's the one who gets elected.
170	* MayflyDecemberRomance: Practically namechecked by [[spoiler: Melanie Blaze]] when she discusses her romance with a certain Drood. She knew his life was an eyeblink compared to hers and decided he was worth it anyway.
171	* MissingMom: Harry's mother, a highly skilled spy and one of the few non-Droods to successfully marry into the family, slipped in between dimensions somewhere and was never seen again. [[spoiler: Revealed to be the result of a UriahGambit in ''From A Drood to a Kill''; the Drood old guard wanted her out of the way, because they couldn't stand that James, their best operative, married an ''elf''.]]
172	* MisterSeahorse: The BatmanColdOpen of the first book is Eddie tracking down a male politician who's been impregnated by a demon.
173	* MobileMaze: The hedge maze on the Drood estate [[spoiler: in which Moxton's Mistake is imprisoned]].
174	* TheMole: Played literally. There is ''someone'' in the family who is working with their enemies--in particular, whoever it is pushed to bring the Loathly Ones through during WWII, even though there were plenty of other options.
175	* MonsterSlayerRomance: The Drood family aren't too pleased that Harry is dating the half-demon Roger, not least because of his ongoing ConflictingLoyalty with Hell. [[spoiler: Love wins out in the end.]]
176	* MonstrousCannibalism: The used-to-be-cars in Little Stoke, the piranhas in Crow Lee's fountain, the huge monsters attacking Drood Hall in the alternate reality: ''lots'' of nasty critters in this series chow down on their own dead or wounded.
177	* MyGrandsonMyself: [[spoiler: Alexander King's real agenda in ''The Spy Who Haunted Me'' is to assume his grandson Peter's identity after self-rejuvenation and plastic surgery, while killing off several renowned up-and-coming rival spies to establish "Peter" as a worthy successor.]]
178	* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Eddie runs into a pocket dimension full of [[spoiler: rogue elves, who reject the dominant hyper-sadistic elf culture (although that doesn't mean you should turn your back on them). Melanie Blaze is the chief example, as she genuinely fell in love with James Drood, and when she discovers the Droods can't help her travel back in time to avert his death, she just lets Eddie leave.]]
179	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
180	** Mr. Stab earned his name.
181	** In-universe example is anybody named "Drood." The mere mention in the first book is enough to empty a bar.
182	** Subverted by Shaman Bond, the use-name/code name of our narrator and protagonist. He intentionally keeps that persona very friendly and low-key, so that no one would associate him with the Droods.
183	** In some circles, Molly Metcalf's name rouses even more alarm than Eddie Drood's. At least with the Droods, you know they'll walk right over anyone in their way to do what their mission demands, then leave; with Molly, she might do ''anything'', to ''anyone'', for any good, bad, petty, or nonexistent reason.
184	* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Manifest Destiny are a pro-human science based organisation that round up non-humans and cook them alive in huge ovens.
185	* NebulousEvilOrganisation: The Immortals are this to the Droods. [[spoiler: The "Teen-age" leader "Methuselah" got to the Heart before the Droods did. The Heart gave himself, some family, and friends [[LivingForeverIsAwesome immortality]] and [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]].]] The new Satanic Conspiracy was a tacky version, and the Sceneshifters were a ''literally'' nebulous version in that even their own membership kept shifting whenever they changed reality.
186	* NotOfThisEarth: The elves have special arrows that can pierce Drood armour that Edwin guesses can only be made from a material that comes from AnotherDimension.
187	* OnlyKnownByHisNickname: Mr. Stab and the Blue Fairy both presumably have real names, but no one ever uses them. Also applies to loads of minor characters whose real names aren't stated. The Spawn of Frankenstein, such as the Bride and Lady Faire, don't seem to ''have'' real names.
188	* OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious: ''The Spy Who Haunted Me'' puts a Greenverse spin on some classic cryptids.
189	* OurElvesAreDifferent: Elves used to rule this world, but we beat them by out-reproducing them, so most of them left. They're generally sadistic bastards who think growing roses through people is a ''minor'' punishment.[[spoiler: They're also incapable of reproducing in their new home. They can only have children when they cross back to Earth and lie with humans.]]
190	* OutOfCharacterAlert: In ''From a Drood to a Kill'', Eddie realizes he's not dealing with [[spoiler: the real Molly]] but a copy, because the real deal would never need as much rescuing as he's been having to do.
191	* PeopleFarms: People ''factories'', actually: the generic people who run the Medium Games [[spoiler: and the Shadow Bank]] are produced by one. The horde of Nazi clones from ''For Heaven's Eyes Only'' probably were too, although Eddie doesn't actually see the clone-production facility.
192	* PhraseCatcher: No matter how Eddie himself gets described, Molly is ''always'' referred to as "the infamous Molly Metcalf". She gets rather frustrated by it eventually.
193	* PortalPool: The Blue Fairy creates these from his own half-elven blood, just so he can ''go fishing'' in them.
194	* PoweredArmor: The Droods have their golden armor that comes out of the torcs.
195	* PoweredByAForsakenChild:
196	** The Sceneshifters get their power from the Red King, the living head of a captured professor. They alter reality by manipulating his dreams. He's not happy with them when Edwin wakes him up.
197	** How did the Droods get their golden armor when the Heart was in charge? [[spoiler:Droods always gave birth to twin babies, one of which was sacrificed to the Heart to make a torc.]]
198	* ThePowerOfLove:
199	** [[spoiler: In ''Daemons are Forever'' Roger uses it to stand up to the Soul Gun.]]
200	** [[spoiler: Harry uses it again in ''For Heaven's Eyes Only'' to banish a major demon of Hell so he can get to Roger.]]
201	* PrecautionaryCorpseDisposal: The Drood AncientOrderOfProtectors teleports its dead into the sun, both to protect them from enemy {{Necromanc\|er}}y and because its membership tends to be strong-willed, ornery, and prone to haunting over UnfinishedBusiness.
202	* RealityIsOutToLunch: Loathly One ghoulvilles; also Little Stoke; the Shifting Lands.
203	%%* ReligionOfEvil: The Satanic Conspiracy.
204	* RetGone: The sceneshifters are made to never have existed when [[spoiler: the Red King, the man they imprisoned [[AndIMustScream as a severed head]] and forced to reshape reality for them, wakes up and takes his revenge.]]
205	* RidiculouslyLonglivedFamilyName: The Drood family are an AncientOrderOfProtectors (or AncientConspiracy, depending on whom you ask) dating back from the present day to Roman Britain, when they began as a {{Druid}} splinter sect.
206	%%* RuleOfCool
207	* RunTheGauntlet: The first book, wherein Eddie Drood has to survive attacks by (in order) [[TheMenInBlack Men in Black]] in [[BlackHelicopter Black Helicopters]], car-eating entropic Ghost Cars, [[ScrewYouElves Elves]] riding [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragons]], ''Demonic'' Ghost Cars and, finally, a fleet of human-built Magitek [[FlyingSaucer Flying Saucerers]] (not a misspelling.)
208	* RunningGag: Ethel ''always'' asks Eddie if he brought her a present, and he ''always'' begs off by saying he's never sure what to get her.
209	** Eddie getting all sorts of clever {{Magitek}} spy gadgets from the Armourer, then completely forgetting to use them.
210	** Shaman brushing off questions about how he acquired some suspiciously-handy magical item by saying he found it on eBay.
211	** The girl with a butterfly net who's always chasing a flying eyeball through the Armoury.
212	** Molly effortlessly getting her way by asking Eddie if he ever wants to see her naked again.
213	* RussianRoulette: Shaman has to play this in the introductory round of games at ''Casino Infernale''.
214	* ScrewYouElves: Most Droods any chance they get, because elves are universally sadistic and awful. [[spoiler: Well, almost universally, but the only one who ''isn't'' was still on the receiving end of this anyway.]] Also literally, which is how you end up with the Blue Fairy.
215	* SealedEvilInACan: Grendel Rex. He was a Drood who murdered his family members and stole their torcs, fusing them with his own to gain godlike power, and almost took over the world. The rest of the Droods managed to put him down, but he was too strong to kill, so they buried him in Siberia. [[spoiler: ''Moonbreaker'' reveals that he ''let'' them do it as part of a BatmanGambit to come back when the family had forgotten how to deal with him, and he could use the titular artifact to remake the world from the literal ground up.]]
216	** The Drood in Cell 13, the Living Library, is also this. He knows everything the family knows, and actually asked them to imprison him...except it's been a ''long'' time, and he changes his mind about wanting to be down there every so often. [[spoiler: And, like Grendel Rex, he can actually get out whenever he wants; he's the villain of ''Property of a Lady Faire''.]]
217	* ShapeshifterShowdown:
218	** At Casino Infernale, this trope is offered as one of the Medium Games. Played with when Shaman competes, as [[spoiler: he mostly battles his opponent in his human form, rather than transforming into powerful shapes.]]
219	** Inverted when Molly plays World War, in which combatants retain their own shapes but change everything about their environment to overcome one another's "world".
220	* ShootingSuperman: All the freaking time, when mooks confront Droods in armor. If it's Eddie they're shooting, they'll eventually give up and try shooting ''Molly'', only to find her magical shielding is no less invulnerable.
221	* ShoutOut: Even the name Eddie Drood is a shout out to [[Literature/TheMysteryOfEdwinDrood the last novel]] of Creator/CharlesDickens.
222	** All of the titles of the books are variations of ''Film/JamesBond'' titles. (''Property of a Lady Faire'' is the only one that isn't a movie title; "The Property of a Lady" was one of the stories in ''Literature/OctopussyAndTheLivingDaylights'', elements of which were used in the film of ''Film/{{Octopussy}}''.)
223	** In ''Daemons Are Forever'', Eddie suits up in Silver Armor that covers his entire body, jumps up onto a helicopter; punches through the window, and tells the pilot to [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} "Get out."]]
224	*** He also comments on how the Droods have technology from various [[MadScientist mad scientists]]. A [[Literature/FromTheEarthToTheMoon Moon Cannon]]; a [[Film/TheMolePeople Mole Driller]]; and a [[Film/WildWildWest Giant Mechanical Spider they got from some American Mad Scientist from the Wild West.]]
225	** The Kandarian amulet from the first novel psychically projects creepy pleas to "''[[Franchise/EvilDead Join us]]''" into Eddie's head.
226	** In ''Spy'', we get reference to the Wizard of Northampton, who has been [[Creator/AlanMoore writing comic books for twenty years or so]]. Which has done odd things to his perceptions of gods and monsters, if Walker is to be believed.
227	*** ''For Heaven's Eyes Only'' references "Description Theory" of ComicBook/{{Planetary}} fame.
228	*** The same book also mentions [[ComicBook/{{Gravel}} SAS combat sorcerers]] a couple of times.
229	** The Scarlet Lady bears a suspicious resemblance to Literature/{{Christine}}, another red Plymouth Fury with a mean streak.
230	** ''Property'' gives us the Painted Ghoul, and given his description, one could be forgiven for mistaking him for [[Literature/{{IT}} Pennywise the Dancing Clown]].
231	* SnowMeansDeath: During Eddie's sojourn in Limbo after he's been poisoned, he finds himself in an empty, frozen version of Drood Hall where all the windows look out over the snow-covered grounds and mysterious hedge maze.
232	* SoulJar: Molly, being a witch, keeps her heart hidden outside her body. While she's not invulnerable and can die permanently from LosingYourHead, her sisters can use her SoulJar to restore her from damage that would otherwise be fatal. [[spoiler: She did the same thing to Eddie on the sly to protect him, which is how he survives his first poisoning. He makes her put his heart back afterwards, as his family doesn't approve of such things.]]
233	* SpringHeeledJack: Spring-heeled Jack in a more [[AdaptationalHeroism positive portrayal]] is a recurring ally of Edwin Drood and the Drood family as well as romantic partner to the Bride of the Frankenstein. The two act as protectors to humanity with Eddie getting their help in order to put an end to the vile [[ImmortalityImmorality Family of Immortals]] in the novel, ''From Hell with Love''. Jack is also occasionally mentioned in its sister series ''Literature/{{Nightside}}'' and even makes a brief appearance in the final book, when he's seen at a party necking with his lover.
234	* StatuesqueStunner: Most Droods are described as being tall and good looking so the women would definitely count.
235	%%* StupidJetpackHitler: Vril Power Inc. As well as Schloss Shreck.
236	* SummonToHand: The holder of the Serjeant-at-Arms position within the Drood family can pull weapons out of thin air as needed.
237	* TalkingAnimal: The "hey, rube!" squirrel in Molly's wild woods. Archie the owl at Castle Inconnu.
238	* TalkingToThemself: [[spoiler: Peter from ''The Spy Who Haunted Me'' is really Alexander, so this trope applies when he talks with the holographic image of his "grandfather".]]
239	* ThinkingUpPortals: Molly can conjure portals but it uses up a lot of her energy.
240	* ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs: InUniverse, Molly says that Music/WithinTemptation are like [[Music/{{Abba}} ABBA]] on crack.
241	* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: Penny. Despite being repeatedly warned by everyone, including the man himself, not to get close to Mr. Stab, she insists he's a good person at heart. Right up until he murders her.]]
242	* TrilogyCreep: The series was originally planned as just three books, but continued due to popularity, with the twelfth and final installment being a mass crossover with his earlier works.
243	* TruceZone: The Wulfshead is supposed to be one but the odd fight does break out.
244	* UncannyValley: InUniverse, Loathly One drones ''really'' creep people out, because they look human but are incapable of showing human attentiveness, reactions, or even of moving like actual people do.
245	* UnlimitedWardrobe: Molly has a literal magical version by reusing the same fabric and transforming it with magic.
246	* {{Unperson}}: Droods who are declared rogue are erased from the family's history, their past achievements credited to relatives who know how to toe the line.
247	* UnusualHalo: [[{{Ubermensch}} Truman]] has inserted steel rods into his brain, joined by a large steel ring over his head, which he claims [[NinetyPercentOfYourBrain unlocks the true power of the human mind]].
248	* UriahGambit: [[spoiler: Melanie Blaze]] didn't so much get "lost" as "deliberately misplaced", sent dangerously far into the Subtle Realms after a rogue agent who might not actually have been rogue, on account of [[spoiler: being an elf who dared marry not only a Drood but ''James'' Drood, the famous Gray Fox and favorite son.]]
249	%%* VeryPunchableMan: Philip [=MacAlpine.=]
250	* WeirdnessMagnet: Even by the standards of the Droods and the Greenverse, Eddie's had some ''extremely'' bizarre experiences. Becomes a self-perpetuating trope in ''Dr. [=DOA=]'''s BatmanColdOpen, in which Eddie is assigned to take down [[FortuneTeller Cassandra Inc.]] because he's so much this trope that there's no way that organization can predict what'll happen if ''he's'' involved.
251	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: When last seen in ''The Spy Who Haunted Me'', [[spoiler: Coffin Jobe had succumbed to his necrolepsy and died at the Independent Agent's secret lair. It's never mentioned whether he revived in time to leave before Eddie and Walker finished looting the place and blew it up. Even Jobe's cameo appearance in ''For Heaven's Eyes Only'' doesn't resolve the issue, as Eddie's near-death experiences are an enigma in themselves, and it seems fairly certain that most of the other people Eddie sees in that particular sequence aren't real.]]
252	* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Happens to Methuselah. He wants to leave earth because he's done and seen everything. He also wants break into heaven to enjoy its splendor.
253	* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Doctor Delirium, a villain who threatens to unleash diseases unless he is paid ransom in rare postage stamps -- once a collector, always a collector. He sends his goons to steal the Apocalypse Door in order to make the world take him seriously.
254	* TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed:
255	** Only to be expected, given the Droods' role as big-league defenders of humanity.
256	** Lampshaded in ''Daemons'':
257	-->"So," I said. "I am left with just a few days to stop the bad guys from destroying the world and save the family from itself. If I hadn't already done this once before, I might be seriously worried."
258	* YourHeadAsplode: Happens to an unfortunate Drood far-seer when she attempts to scry on Little Stoke in ''For Heaven's Eyes Only''.
259	* ZerothLawRebellion: [[spoiler: The generic people were tasked to run the Shadow Bank by their human masters, as efficiently as possible. As the generics quickly determined that their human masters' involvement was making the Bank ''less'' efficient, they converted all of their masters into more clones like themselves.]]

Context Literature / SecretHistories