A word of warning, Lost Acre is the third book in a trilogy. If you’ve not read books one and book two then I suggest you proceed with caution. It is entirely possible that minor spoilers may lie within.  APOCALYPSE NOW? Geryon Wynter, the brilliant Elizabethan mystic, has achieved resurrection and returned to present-day Rotherweird. But after the chaos of Election Day, how can a stranger from another time wrest control? And for what fell purpose is Wynter back? His dark conspiracy reaches its climax in this unique corner of England, where the study of history is forbidden and neither friend nor foe are quite what they seem. The stakes could not be higher, for at the endgame, not only Rotherweird is under threat. The future of mankind itself hangs in the balance. Lost Acre’s predecessors, Rotherweird and Wyntertide, were an absolute delight from beginning to end, and this final book in the series is the icing on a perfect cake. This series has been such a delight, I’m going to miss it. I will reign in my heartbreak, power through the grief, and endeavour to convey some semblance of professionalism. Please note however, that what follows is written by a…

Please note Wyntertide is a direct sequel to Rotherweird and as this is the case it is entirely likely that this review may contain minor spoilers if you haven’t read what has come before. Don’t tell me later you weren’t warned in advance. The town of Rotherweird, made independent from the rest of England by Queen Elizabeth I, has resumed its abnormal normality after a happy ending to the travails of summer. But is it really all over? Disturbing omens multiply: a funeral delivers a cryptic warning; an ancient portrait speaks; the Herald disappears – and democracy threatens the covenant between town and countryside. An intricate plot, centuries in the making, is on the move. Everything is pointing to one objective: the resurrection of Rotherweird’s dark Elizabethan past, and to one date: the Winter Equinox. In Rotherweird, nothing and nobody are quite what they seem. I loved Andrew Caldecott’s debut from last year, Rotherweird. It is quite an experience and hugely entertaining. The sequel, Wynteride, has recently been released and good news, it is also an absolute bloomin’ corker. All my favourite characters return. Everyone, without exception, is just a little bit odd. Eccentricity is rife in Rotherweird, and rediscovering…

The town of Rotherweird stands alone – there are no guidebooks, despite the fascinating and diverse architectural styles cramming the narrow streets, the avant garde science and offbeat customs. Cast adrift from the rest of England by Elizabeth I, Rotherweird’s independence is subject to one disturbing condition: nobody, but nobody, studies the town or its history. For beneath the enchanting surface lurks a secret so dark that it must never be rediscovered, still less reused. But secrets have a way of leaking out. Two inquisitive outsiders have arrived: Jonah Oblong, to teach modern history at Rotherweird School (nothing local and nothing before 1800), and the sinister billionaire Sir Veronal Slickstone, who has somehow got permission to renovate the town’s long-derelict Manor House. Slickstone and Oblong, though driven by conflicting motives, both strive to connect past and present, until they and their allies are drawn into a race against time – and each other. The consequences will be lethal and apocalyptic. Welcome to Rotherweird! The Spanish philosopher George Santayana once wrote “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” No one in Rotherweird appears to have ever heard that turn of phrase. In the dim and distant past, the town’s…