The lifelong bandit, Senfra, does not care about anyone or anything except a good night at the pub, certainly not about the people and animals rumored to be disappearing from the Cold Sea coast. But when his gang rebels and steals his fortune, he finds himself on the Cursed Island, surrounded by dangerous crossbreeds. Senfra's only possible ally is Toth, a necromancer reviled by society because of his fascination with bones and death. The two must learn to trust each other while confronting a master transmuter who has been creating an army of unearthly abominations by combining animals, humans, and objects.

The Lesser Evil is Book Five in Legends of the Four Races, a series of nine high fantasy novels that form an Interlocking Matrix of six separate trilogies. The Lesser Evil may be read on its own, as the second book of The Transmuter Trilogy or as the second book of The War Trilogy.