K.A.S. Quinn - The Queen Must Die Blog tour

Synopsis:
A magical, thrilling, time-travelling adventure trilogy for for 9-12 year old readers.

This is the story of Katie Berger-Jones-Burg.

One minute, she’s under the bed of her New York apartment… the next she’s in Buckingham Palace, at the height of Queen Victoria’s reign... A dangerous place to be.

The Royal Family is in mortal peril. In the secret passages of the palace, a plot is afoot. Suspicious figures huddle in the gas-lit streets of London. And Katie is not the only time-traveller in the city…

Grove Atlantic have put their left foot in, then their right foot in...and now they are shaking it all about with the first release of their very first book for younger readers: The Queen Must Die by the mysteriously named K.A.S. Quinn. Ms. Quinn has agreed to give us some information about The Queen Must Die, timetravelling and also an exclusive excerpt. But, before we get on to the blogpost, from the bio on the Atlantic Books website I personally love this line: "She still reads children’s books in bed, after lights out, with a torch." She sounds like my kind of girl.

You’re a time traveller…so prove it!

What if you found someone under the sofa in your house and they told you they’d travelled from the future? Right. I wouldn’t believe them either. I’d call the police.

Katie comes from contemporary New York. But it turns out she’s part of The Tempus, the chosen, and can travel through time.

Princess Alice wants to believe Katie. She likes her immediately, and is excited by this new friend, not chosen through royal protocol. James O’Reilly thinks Katie is a fraud. He is a very loyal subject to the crown, and believes Princess Alice is in grave danger. Alice thinks she can take care of herself. In this part of The Queen Must Die, they are all getting to know each other. They also meet James’ little brother, Riordan, and learn some sad things about James’ life.

When I write, I become very attached to my characters. When I finished writing The Queen Must Die, I became very sad. I had spent over a year with Katie, James and Princess Alice. I missed them. So I was thrilled when my publishers said they wanted to publish a trilogy. Two more books! This meant at least two more years with some of my favourite people.

The second book in this trilogy, The Queen at War, will be published in the spring of 2012.

Katie thought for a moment. She could talk to them about cars, airplanes and rocket ships –– fantastic inventions yet to come. But it could all be taken for fantasy. She had no proof. She couldn’t exactly rustle up a computer out of thin air. And while computers and TV were great, some of the things in the future – well, they weren’t that great. She even knew bits and pieces of their own futures. Wars, looming in the decades to come, and diseases they couldn’t cure, and death. Perhaps she should start with what she’d seen here, that night.

‘Do any of you understand what’s wrong with Prince Leopold?’ she asked.
‘We know he has the bleeding disease, haemophilia, and that Dr O’Reilly is trying to find ways to strengthen his blood vessels.’

‘It has nothing to do with his blood vessels,’ Katie explained. ‘It’s the blood itself. It doesn’t clot.’ Alice looked confused, so Katie tried to explain in simpler terms. ‘When you cut yourself and bleed, the blood quickly changes from liquid to solid. The platelets in your blood bunch together around the wound to form a kind of plug to stop the bleeding. Prince Leopold’s blood doesn’t do this. If he lived in my time, we could give him injections of the bits he needs to make clots in his blood, but I don’t think you can do even the simplest blood transfusions in your time, I don’t think you can…’

‘Will we find the cure?’ Alice asked, looking earnestly into Katie’s face. ‘Can we learn from you, and save him?’

Katie looked down at her green wool socks. She didn’t like what she had to say.

‘I don’t know enough,’ she replied finally. ‘And you don’t learn enough in time… the cure doesn’t come in time…’

Alice’s eyes filled with tears, but James’s eyes showed only distrust and anger. ‘Your diagnosis and analysis of the case are sheer foolishness,’ he protested, ‘made up words and total fiction. Dry your tears, Princess Alice, it’s a hoax. She is a foreigner, bent on badness. I really do insist…’

They were interrupted by a cooing cry followed by the soft slap of bare feet, as a very round-limbed toddler padded around the corner, laughing at the sight of James O’Reilly.

‘Blast,’ said James, ‘the nursemaid must have dozed off again.’

‘He obviously knows you,’ said Katie, as the small child wrapped himself around James’s legs.

James picked him up and hugged him tightly. ‘This is my brother, Riordan
O’Reilly.’

‘That’s a funny name,’ said Katie, forgetting briefly that her own name was Berger-Jones-Burg.

‘It’s an Irish name,’ said James. ‘My mother chose it. She died soon after Riordan was born.’

Everyone else in the room was silent. James held his little brother tight to his chest and turned his face away from the girls. No one knew what to say. James’s anger and distrust, Alice’s hauteur and Katie’s fear evaporated. They seemed petty and silly in the face of death. James O’Reilly might not be likeable, but Katie felt deeply sorry for this stiff, dour, motherless boy.

Alice broke the uncomfortable pause. ‘First things first,’ she said gently. ‘Baby Riordan simply must be returned to his cot. It’s very cold, and he’s only wearing a nightshirt. Then, Jamie, you must leave too. We will all think more clearly in the morning. Katie and I shall meet you tomorrow. If her story is true, and I believe it to be so, then we must try to send her back to her own time as soon as possible. Your family must be frightfully worried.’

Katie thought of Mimi, drinking margaritas in her honeymoon suite in Acapulco. She didn’t see the need to share this picture with the other two. James bowed again to Princess Alice. ‘I will settle Riordan, and then I will be in the corridor, directly outside your door. One call and I will be at your side.’

Alice sighed. This wasn’t how subjects behaved towards her mother. ‘Fine,’ she replied curtly, ‘if you wish to spend the whole night in a chilly corridor that’s up to you.’

Giving Katie one final, furious look, James shouldered his little brother and left the room. Alice turned to Katie.

‘Now to bed,’ she ordered, running her eyes over her new friend as if she were trying to remember every detail. ‘And if you are a dream, as you say you might be, then let me tell you this before you disappear. This day has been the greatest adventure of my entire life.’ And with that the Princess climbed into bed and fell fast asleep.

The Nostradamus Prophecies by Mario Reading

Synopsis

Nostradamus wrote a thousand prophecies. Only 942 have survived. What happened to the missing quatrains? And what secrets did they contain to make it necessary for them to remain hidden? And why did Nostradamus leave his daughter a sealed container in his will? This mystery drives two men with very different desires. Adam Sabir is a writer desperate to revive his flagging career; Achor Bale is a member of an ancient secret society that has dedicated itself to the protection and support of the ‘Three Antichrists’ foretold in Nostradamus’s verses – Napoleon, Adolf Hitler, and the ‘one still to come’… The pair embark on a terrifying chase through the ancient Romany encampments of France in a quest to locate the missing verses.

The action starts practically immediately in Mario Reading's second fiction novel. We are introduced to Achor Bale, the antagonist in the novel and within a few passages we know that this man is genuinely not a nice guy. He is a stone cold trained killer and will do anything to get his way.

We are then introduced to Adam Sabir who is a very likeable guy, if utterly unaware of the amount of trouble he's getting himself into when he meets up with Babel Samana, a gypsy with something to sell - the supposed location of the lost prophecies of Nostradamus.

Samana realises that Bale is following him to meet with Sabir. He enacts a gypsy bonding, cutting his hand and then Sabir's, mixing their blood, making him family. Before he runs from the restaurant, he tells Sabir two words. (read the book to find out what they are)

Sabir is bemused - he was expecting to hear a fable from Samana, wondering why the man would have taken out an advert in the newspaper, selling information about the prophecies. He's torn between wanting to believe he's getting the genuine article. Instead he's attacked by the man he's come to meet, his hand is cut by shattered glass, the gypsy acts deranged and then flees the restaurant.

I'm not giving away any of the story-line, I promise. You can read this section on the website, as an extract from the novel.

What makes The Nostradamus Prophecies unique is the characters and the execution of the novel. I genuinely enjoyed meeting Sabir - he is a nice, intelligent guy, slightly taken aback by becoming, through the mixing of blood, part of a group of gypsies. He becomes the brother to Yola, Samana's sister. With Alexi, a newly inherited gypsy cousin, the three of them follow the clues left centuries before by Nostradamus himself with Samana's female family.

It is a rare thriller / quest novel that takes me by surprise. Superficially, the novel ticks all the right boxes - ancient prophecies, the quest to locate them, a hero, a difficult situation. What makes it different is the inclusion of a completely different locale - France - and the inclusion of gypsy lore, customs and the genuine "feel" of these enigmatic people - all of which is impeccably researched and well told. The two main gypsy characters, Yola and Alexi are vividly portrayed and ingeniously described. Through them we are introduced to their world, we follow Sabir as he stumbles around their odd world, trying not to make a hash of it. The three characters work together very well - they appear quite genuine.

The two policemen who follow Sabir and the gypsies are very together and on the ball. Also, very likeable - maybe Macron less so than Calque (whom you suspect is wasted as a policeman as he is too intelligent, too cultured and too nice) who is very old school and very amusing. Our antagonist, Achor Bale is a deeply flawed character but one you like to dislike because he's not a cardboard cut-out. He has his motivations, he has a good background which comes to the fore during the investigation and more importantly, like the Terminator, he just does not give up. In other words, there are no easy outs.

The story moves forward at a clipping pace as we follow the two gypsies, Sabir and the two policeman as they unravel the clues left by Nostradamus. The focus is on characterisation and the interesting relationship between the gypsies with Sabir. The legends of Nostradamus are touched on, so lightly, during the course of the novel that it never gets dull or boring and over-told, which makes all the difference. You aren't bombarded by the incessant explanations and conjecture. This is however a very clever ploy by the author - and I loved falling for it.

The novel is a very rapid read, it twists and turns and is a fascinating and wild read. It is definitely a very worthy addition to any the thriller / adventure reader's bookshelf, I can assure you.

Find Mario Reading's website here, the dedicated The Nostradamus Prophecies page can be found here with an extract from the novel and a video by the author talking about The Man himself. The Nostradamus Prophecies is published by Atlantic Books and is available now. Go buy a copy! Actually, to be honest: if you're not really someone to read these "types" of books, The Nostradamus Prophecy is a very good place to start as it just works so well.

The Bethlehem Murders, Matt Rees

Synopsis:

Omar Yussef has taught history to the children of Bethlehem for as long as anyone can remember. When a favourite former pupil, George Saba, is arrested over a murder, Omar is convinced that he has been framed. With George facing imminent execution, Omar sets out to prove his innocence.

As Omar falls foul of his headmaster and the local police chief, time begins to run out for this teacher-turned-detective. His classroom is bombed and members of his family are threatened. But with no one else willing to stand up for the truth, it is up to Omar to act, even as bloodshed and heartbreak surround him.

Along with quest adventures, really good detective and crime novels rank pretty high on my list of books to read for pure indulgence and enjoyment.

The Bethlehem Murders by Matt Rees falls into this category without a shadow of a doubt. A pure pleasure to read from start to finish with a main character, Omar Yusuf, being a likeable, tough and honest creation in a setting and situation where things are pretty awful.

Like in Barbara Nadel's books you are transported to somewhere so completely different to what you are used to, that you rely solely on the author's observations through the characters and therefore you respond in kind.

In the creation of Omar Yusuf, we have a very wise, sympathetic, honest and forthright person who gives a completely new outlook on the troubles of the West Bank in Palestine. It really brings the shock and horror of what it is like living in a desolate war-torn place home to those who have never had the opportunity to either visit or examine this awful conflict closer.

I hasten to add that although the book is highly charged and it gives a strong flavour of what things are like, it is not a political satire or political comment in any way. It shoots from the hip and tells it like it is. How gunmen are a daily fact of life, how Israeli fire from the other side of the valley is something to be endured. And how ordinary people like you and I soldier on because to give up is unthinkable.

And it is in the day to day lives of these people that the book shines. Through Omar's desperate search to save the life of his student, awful things are uncovered - George is being set up by an Isreali collaborator and other people are murdered to keep him from being released.

Omar's character is one created with deft skill. A wise, funny, honest and morally upright character he struggles to cope with the shock of people who are uncaring about the fate of not just his friend and ex-pupil but also has to face the total apathy from everyone involved in this case. Genuinely, no one seems to care. Yet Omar is that breed of man who sets his jaw, straightens his back and trudges on to find the truth, no matter what.

I really enjoyed the book and was sad to put it aside, having finished it in one long read. I will probably reread it again soon and I know that I will be buying some copies for friends to read as it is just so well crafted and held together by a character that is as enigmatic and truthful as I have ever come across.

Matt Rees scored ten out of ten in the character creation department and Omar Yusuf is a long slow study of an intelligent man caught up in happenings in a very brutal world where he struggles to retain his own identity and feels that he is the only one fighting for justice.

A bit about the author:

Matt Rees was born and raised in South Wales. He has covered the Middle East as a journalist for a decade, including six years as Time magazine's Jerusalem bureau chief. He is author of the non-fiction work Cain’s Field: Faith, Fratricide, and Fear in the Middle East. The Bethlehem Murders is his first novel. The second book in the Omar Yussef series, The Saladin Murders, is published by Atlantic Books in January 2008. Matt Rees’s website is www.mattbeynonrees.com.