Fergus Sheppard’s world changes forever the day his car crashes near the remote village of Allingley. Traumatised by his near-death experience, he returns to thank the villagers who rescued him, and stays to work at the local stables as he recovers from his injuries. He will discover a gentler pace of life, fall in love ¬ and be targeted for human sacrifice. Clare Harvey’s life will never be the same either. The young archaeologist’s dream find ¬ the peat-preserved body of a Saxon warrior ¬ is giving her nightmares. She can tell that the warrior had been ritually murdered, and that the partial skeleton lying nearby is that of a young woman. And their tragic story is unfolding in her head every time she goes to sleep. Fergus discovers that his crash is uncannily linked to the excavation, and that the smiling and beautiful countryside harbours some very dark secrets. As the pagan festival of Beltane approaches, and Clare’s investigation reveals the full horror of a Dark Age war crime, Fergus and Clare seem destined to share the Saxon couple’s bloody fate.
Author
Geoffrey Gudgion grew up with his nose in a book, often one featuring knights in armour. A turbulent career including the armed forces and business has now settled into full-time writing. Since the publication of Saxon’s Bane and Draca he has gravitated to the fantasy genre and is the author, as G.N. Gudgion, of the Rune Song trilogy. The first in the series, Hammer of Fate, will be published on 1 June 2023 by Second Sky, an imprint of Bookoutoure/Hachette. Geoff loves to create stories with complex, conflicted characters that a reader can bleed with, cry for, and perhaps fall in love with; stories with a strong historical slant but where women don’t have to be either beautiful damsels or witches. They live in worlds where you can smell the sweat and the sewers, as well as the roses. He lives in a leafy corner of England, where he’s a keen amateur equestrian and a very bad pianist. He spends much of his time crafting words in a shed, fifty yards and five hundred years from his house.
