In the Shadow of Death
The Tobias & Stuart Trilogy
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Blurb
Death smells rot in a Birmingham hospital—and realises someone is binding the newly dead to their bodies.
At the same time, Daisy, fourteen, begins drawing lost souls like a lighthouse. Tobias Staghorn—lecturer, reluctant prophet, the man Music once chose—opens his door to the impossible: Music has a body again, and love is suddenly crowded.
From snow-slick winter into a tense spring across the Midlands and London, A&E doctor Stuart Murray returns just as “impossible patients” stop dying on schedule. Death, elegant and furious, stalks the wards with a scythe she’d rather not use.
The world is quietly uncanny and precisely bounded: Death, Music, and Time are real, embodied, and limited—Death can guide but not choose; Music can kindle feeling but not command consent; Time can braid a soul’s tether, but every crossing must belong to the soul itself. Around the crisis, a small constellation holds fast: Rosie’s loyalty, Lily and Troy at Tiger Lily, Dottie keeping grief tidy, and Tobias and Stuart negotiating a hungry, tender power exchange that keeps colliding with work, old wounds, and what neither of them will say aloud.
To free the jammed passage between life and afterlife, Death needs answers. Tobias wants a department built, a grief faced, and a love he won’t ruin. Stuart wants to save bodies without losing himself. Daisy just wants the noise to stop. As shadow ghosts thicken and hospitals buckle, what do they owe the living, the dead—and each other—when Time himself is the sabotage?
Series: In the Shadow of Death is Book 2 of The Tobias & Stuart Trilogy (best read in order).
Content notes: explicit consensual intimacy (including kink with explicit consent); medical trauma detail; grief and harassment; one attempted sexual assault referenced on-page; hate-crime themes; frequent strong language.
Perfect for: intimate urban fantasy, personified cosmic forces, hospital-set stakes, found family, and a queer romance shaped by care, boundaries, and truth.
Behind the Pages
Over the years, I’ve had more story ideas than I can count—some passing through quickly, others lingering for tea. A few even came with dramatic entrances and impossible demands. But none of them ever made it onto paper. Not even a line. Not even a note on the back of a napkin.
Until Tobias & Stuart.
I’ve always been drawn to MM romance and speculative fantasy, and since this was my first novel, I thought I’d start with something I knew well—academic life. It’s a world full of eccentric characters, strange rituals, and an endless supply of questions without clear answers. In its own way, academia already feels a bit fantastical. My challenge was to combine all three into one story.
Tobias & Stuart became the kind of book I wanted to read myself: an MM romance that doesn’t just flutter hearts but nudges the mind awake. At its centre is Tobias, an academic who’s built a perfectly sensible life for himself… until he hasn’t. His journey is one of confronting emptiness, finding courage in vulnerability, and slowly becoming the truest version of himself—all while the world threatens to unravel around him.
It’s a story about love, friendship, and the delightful absurdity of being human. Those small, stubborn things that—when you really think about it—might just be what saves the world.
I hope you’ll come along for the journey with Tobias and Stuart, and of course with Music, Death, and Time, who have a way of turning everything upside down just when you think you’ve figured it out.
Jern Tonkoi
Reviews
This second installment in the Tobias and Stuart trilogy was a tough one to read — in the best and most heart-wrenching sense. We left them in book one in a tentative “happy for now,” with some loose threads but nothing too critical. Here, things go south quickly, and there were moments when I truly doubted whether we would ever reach a better place again. Alongside Tobias and Stuart, the story of Music unfolds, now layered with chaos and the arrival of bigger players like Death and Time themselves. What began as a sweet, melancholic journey of self-discovery in book one transforms into a harrowing voyage through inner battles, trauma survival, and mental health awareness. The stakes are no longer personal but life and death — and Jern Tonkoi balances this weight with remarkable precision, keeping the reader uncertain of the outcome until the very end. I especially felt Tobias’s journey at the heart of this book. Stuart is still present and fighting his own battles, but his role feels more secondary compared to the deeply personal struggles Tobias faces. Their love story remains essential, but it also serves as a counterpoint to the larger universe they’re caught up in — a universe filled with ghosts, shadows, and forces they barely understand, yet are still willing to sacrifice everything for the people they love. This book also goes to darker places, touching on themes like hate crimes and SA. I strongly recommend checking trigger warnings before diving in. Still, for all its heaviness, it’s a deeply moving and powerful continuation of the trilogy — one that expands both the emotional depth and the scope of the story in ways I didn’t expect.
This was a strong sequel in the Tobias & Stuart series, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed from previous works from Jern Tonkoi. It uses the British fantasy element in a way that I was expecting and enjoyed in this world, it continued the storyline perfectly and was glad it was everything that I wanted. I enjoyed getting to read this and look forward to more from the author.
This series may not be your typical romantasy, but it absolutely deserves a chance. 💜 It’s a slow burn — not just in the romance, but in how the world itself unfolds. The author takes time to build the universe, layer the relationships, and weave in themes of love, loss, and survival. Book two dives into darker territory, balancing tenderness with chaos, and pulling you into a story where love becomes a guiding light even in the shadow of death. 🖤 If you’re looking for a series that’s emotional, haunting, and beautifully different — this is it.
Read-alikes
- Under the Whispering Door — TJ Klune Fantasy — Contemporary
Shares afterlife-adjacent stakes, melancholy turning toward hope, and a queer relationship centered on consent and care. Readers who want tender tone and humane magic will recognize the vibe.
- Strange Practice — Vivian Shaw Urban Fantasy — Contemporary
Hospital/medical frame in a modern city, found-family dynamics, and precise, gently witty voice align with the A&E corridors and community under pressure.
- The Library of the Unwritten — A. J. Hackwith Fantasy — Contemporary
Afterlife systems, personified forces, and an intimate, character-led quest echo the book’s embodied Death/Music/Time and found family holding a fragile balance.
- Reaper Man — Terry Pratchett Fantasy — Comic
Direct resonance with a personified Death facing limits and consequences; blends quietly witty humor with humane contemplation of life, death, and what we owe each other.
- American Gods — Neil Gaiman Fantasy — Contemporary
Personified powers in the present day and a grounded, human vantage point mirror the book’s cosmic-yet-intimate register and modern setting.
- Good Omens — Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett Fantasy — Comic Contemporary
Shares gently comic tone, ensemble warmth, and cosmic beings operating under rules and limits—an approachable anchor for readers who like wit threaded through the uncanny.