It is 1861, and Albertian Britain is in the grip of conflicting forces. Engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier and dirtier technological wonders; Eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labour; Libertines oppose restrictive and unjust laws and flood the country with propaganda demanding a society based on beauty and creativity; while The Rakes push the boundaries of human behaviour to the limits with magic, sexuality, drugs and anarchy. Returning from his failed expedition to find the source of the Nile, explorer, linguist, scholar and swordsman Sir Richard Francis Burton finds himself sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, employs him as “King's Spy.” His first to investigate the sexual assaults committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack; to find out why chimney sweeps are being kidnapped by half-man, half-dog creatures; and to discover the whereabouts of his badly injured former friend, John Hanning Speke.Accompanied by the diminutive and pain-loving poet, Algernon Swinburne, Burton's investigations lead him back to one of the defining events of the the brutal assassination of Queen Victoria in 1840; and the terrifying possibility that the world he inhabits shouldn't exist at all.

It is 1862, though not the 1862 it should be... Time has been altered, and Sir Richard Francis Burton, the king’s agent, is one of the few people who know that the world is now careening along a very different course from that which Destiny intended. When a clockwork-powered man of brass is found abandoned in Trafalgar Square, Burton and his assistant, the wayward poet Algernon Swinburne, find themselves on the trail of the stolen Garnier Collection—black diamonds rumored to be fragments of the Lemurian Eye of Naga, a meteorite that fell to Earth in prehistoric times. His investigation leads to involvement with the media sensation of the age: the Tichborne Claimant, a man who insists that he’s the long lost heir to the cursed Tichborne estate. Monstrous, bloated, and monosyllabic, he’s not the aristocratic Sir Roger Tichborne known to everyone, yet the working classes come out in force to support him. They are soon rioting through the streets of London, as mysterious steam wraiths incite all-out class warfare. From a haunted mansion to the Bedlam madhouse, from South America to Australia, from séances to a secret labyrinth, Burton struggles with shadowy opponents and his own inner demons, meeting along the way the philosopher Herbert Spencer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Florence Nightingale, and Charles Doyle (father of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). Can the king’s agent expose a plot that threatens to rip the British Empire apart, leading to an international conflict the like of which the world has never seen? And what part does the clockwork man have to play? Burton and Swinburne’s second adventure—The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man—is filled with eccentric steam-driven technology, grotesque characters, and a deepening mystery that pushes forward the three-volume story arc begun in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack.

It is 1863, but not the one it should be. Time has veered wildly off course, and now the first moves are being made that will lead to a devastating world war and the fall of the British Empire. Caught in a tangled web of cause, effect, and inevitability, little does Burton realize that the stakes are far higher than even he suspects. A final confrontation comes in the mist-shrouded Mountains of the Moon, in war- torn Africa of 1914, and in Green Park, London, where, in the year 1840, Burton must face the man responsible for altering Spring Heeled Jack! Burton and Swinburne's third adventure is filled with eccentric steam-driven technology, grotesque characters, and bizarre events, completing the three-volume story arc begun in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack and The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man.

Burton & Swinburne return in a new series! The Beast is coming. History will be remade. Since the assassination of Queen Victoria in 1840, a cabal of prominent men-including King George V, HRH Prince Albert, Benjamin Disraeli, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel-has received guidance from the Afterlife. The spirit of a dead mystic, Abdu El Yezdi, has helped them to steer the empire into a period of unprecedented peace and creativity. But on the eve of a groundbreaking alliance with the newly formed Greater German Confederation, scientists, surgeons, and engineers are being abducted-including Brunel! The government, in search of answers, turns to the Afterlife, only to find that Abdu El Yezdi is now refusing to speak with the living. Enter the newly-knighted Sir Richard Francis Burton, fresh from his discovery of the source of the Nile. Appointed the king's agent, he must trace the missing luminaries and solve the mystery of Abdu El Yezdi's silence. But the Beast has been summoned. How can the famous explorer fulfill his mission when his friends and loved ones are being picked off, one by one, by what appears to be a supernatural entity-by, perhaps, Abdu El Yezdi himself?

SPRING HEELED JACK IS JUMPING BACK! It's 9 p.m. on February 15, 1860, and Charles Babbage, the British Empire's most brilliant scientist, performs an experiment. Within moments, blood red snow falls from the sky and Spring Heeled Jack pops out of thin air in London's Leicester Square. Though utterly disoriented and apparently insane, the strange creature is intent on one thing: hunting Sir Richard Francis Burton! Spring Heeled Jack isn't alone in his mental confusion. Burton can hardly function; he's experiencing one hallucination after another-visions of parallel realities and future history. Someone, or something, is trying to tell him about…what? When the revelation comes, it sends Burton and his companions on an expedition even the great explorer could never have imagined-a voyage through time itself into a twisted future where steam technology has made a resurgence and a despotic intelligence rules over the British Empire!

Burton and Swinburne return for their final thrilling adventure! Sir Richard Francis Burton’s expedition has returned from the future, bringing with it knowledge of technologies which must remain secret for history to follow its natural course. Betrayed by one of their own, Burton and Swinburne watch in horror as the Empire’s elite use this knowledge to secure their positions for all eternity, branding any who oppose them as enemies of the State. Can their band of hunted revolutionaries overthrow the ultimate automated autocrat – their King?.

Burton and Swinburne return for a series of new adventures exclusive to Kindle. Mark Hodder introduced his steampunk heroes in the Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF SPRING HEELED JACK. Through that and five subsequent novels, Sir Richard Francis Burton and his erratic assistant, the poet Algernon Swinburne, battled to repair the mechanisms of time. In this new series of short stories, they have settled into their new lives in an alternate 1862 and are now tackling a new threat to the British a nefarious organisation known as the Black Pentagram. Straightforward crime fighting? Not when the opponents are practitioners of black magic! In THE MYSTERY OF THE EMPTY BAY (9,000 words), the first sorcerer is identified and hunted but seems to vanish into thin air ... or perhaps into deep water! Look out for the second story in the THE DISASTER AT DALE DYKE.

In the second of Burton & Swinburne's new adventures, they continue their battle against the Black Pentagram, a cabal of sorcerers whose criminal activities threaten the security of the British Empire. THE DISASTER AT DALE DYKE (12,000 words) is—like the Burton & Swinburne novels—inspired by real events, though in this alternate reality the Great Sheffield Flood of 1864 occurs two years earlier ... and has a villainous purpose! Steampunk shenanigans from Philip K. Dick Award-winning author Mark Hodder!

The third of Burton & Swinburne's new adventures takes them to Paris where, in the midst of a terrible plague that causes its victms to turn violent, an audacious raid on the Louvre is planned. The Black Pentagram, a cabal of criminal sorcerers, is once again at work! THE GREAT PLAGUE OF PARIS (13,600 words) — like the Burton & Swinburne novels—features real historical characters, including France's most notorious forger! Steampunk mischief from Philip K. Dick Award-winning author Mark Hodder!

The first of three projected companions to the acclaimed Burton & Swinburne series of steampunk novels, this contains six brand new short stories featuring Burton and Swinburne and their various companions, plus short essays, two screenplays fragments, and other related material. Contents: INTRODUCTION THE VISITATION—In which an author at work is interrupted by an unexpected guest. THE AFFAIR OF THE WHISPERING CAB DRIVER—In which Algernon Swinburne's insistence that every cab ride costs a shilling comes back to haunt him. BURTON’S FIRST FORGOTTEN DREAM—In which worlds and schemes beyond even Burton's experience are unveiled. THEATRICAL TRAILER: THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF SPRING HEELED JACK—Probably not coming soon to a cinema anywhere near you. BURTON’S SECOND FORGOTTEN DREAM—In which the requirement for suitable puppets is recognised. DETECTIVE INSPECTOR TROUNCE SETTLES THE SCORE—In which the Scotland Yard detective encounters a familiar face. STEAMPUNK: THE SPIRIT OF TIME—In which the author details his theory concerning the popularity of steampunk. BURTON’S THIRD FORGOTTEN DREAM—In which the players are selected. SCREENPLAY (FRAGMENT)—If it \was\ coming to a cinema near you, it might be something like this. CREATING BURTON & SWINBURNE—In which the author’s thought processes are revealed. COUNTESS SABINA TRAINS A GHOST—In which Charles Doyle learns how to be useful even though he's dead. BURTON’S FOURTH FORGOTTEN DREAM—In which a project is approved. THE CASE OF THE WAYWARD WENDIGO—In which Burton encounters the uncanny while travelling in Chile. BUILDING A WORLD FOR BURTON & SWINBURNE—In which the author reveals how he got away with it (if he did). THE CLOCKWORK MAN OF TRAFALGAR SQUARE—The first ever—previously unpublished—Burton & Swinburne tale (later adapted as the first three chapters of The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man). BURTON’S FIFTH FORGOTTEN DREAM—In which destinies are decided. ABOUT THE AUTHOR PLUS QUOTES, ADVERTISEMENTS AND PROPAGANDA (51,000 words.)