IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO CHANGE YOUR FUTURE WOULD YOU TAKE IT? Esso is running out of time and into trouble. After he is accidentally caught up in a gang war, he is haunted by a vision of a bullet fired in an alleyway with devastating consequences. A generation later, fifteen-year-old football prodigy Rhia is desperately searching for answers – and a catastrophic moment from the past holds the key to understanding the parents she never got to meet. Whether on the roads of South London or in the mysterious Upper World, Esso and Rhia”s fates must collide. And when they do, a race against the clock will become a race against time itself. . . The Eloquent Page is back after a short self-imposed break, and this week I’ve been taking a look at the time travel science fiction novel The Upper World by Femi Fadugba. Esso is a typical teen. He just wants to spend his days hanging out with friends or daydreaming about a certain girl at school. Unfortunately, the threat of gang violence is always present, and Esso has an uncanny knack for ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rhia is…

Please note A Fever of the Blood is a direct sequel to The Strings of Murder and it is likely that if you haven’t read this book first then this review may contain something akin to minor spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn you in advance. New Year’s Day, 1889. In Edinburgh’s lunatic asylum, a patient escapes as a nurse lays dying. Leading the manhunt are legendary local Detective ‘Nine-Nails’ McGray and Londoner-in-exile Inspector Ian Frey. Before the murder, the suspect was heard in whispered conversation with a fellow patient – a girl who had been mute for years. What made her suddenly break her silence? And why won’t she talk again? Could the rumours about black magic be more than superstition? McGray and Frey track a devious psychopath far beyond their jurisdiction, through the worst blizzard in living memory, into the shadow of Pendle Hill – home of the Lancashire witches – where unimaginable danger awaits… I do like to throw the odd crime novel into my reading list, and I have to admit, historical crime tends to be my personal favourite. In particular, I have a soft for anything set in the Victorian era. This time period feels like…

Edinburgh, 1888. A virtuoso violinist is brutally killed in his home. Black magic symbols cover the walls. The dead man’s maid swears she heard three musicians playing before the murder. But with no way in or out of the locked practice room, the puzzle makes no sense… Fearing a national panic over a copy Edinburgh, 1888. A virtuoso violinist is brutally killed in his home. Black magic symbols cover the walls. The dead man’s maid swears she heard three musicians playing before the murder. But with no way in or out of the locked practice room, the puzzle makes no sense… Fearing a national panic over a copycat Ripper, Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Frey to investigate under the cover of a fake department specializing in the occult. However, Frey’s new boss – Detective ‘Nine-Nails’ McGray – actually believes in such nonsense. McGray’s tragic past has driven him to superstition, but even Frey must admit that this case seems beyond reason. And once someone loses all reason, who knows what they will lose next… Over the last couple of years, I’ve started to really enjoy the odd foray into the realms of historical crime fiction. It strikes me that the…

In a small village, miles from the great cities of the Twin Kingdoms, a young boy called Errol tries to find his way in the world. He’s an outsider – he looks different from other children and has never known his father. No one, not even himself, has any knowledge of his true lineage. Deep in the forest, Benfro, the young male dragon begins his training in the subtle arts. Like his mother, Morgwm the Green, he is destined to be a great Mage. No one could imagine that the future of all life in the Twin Kingdoms rests in the hands of these two unlikely heroes. But it is a destiny that will change the lives of boy and dragon forever … James Oswald may already be known to some of you good folks out there in reader land. He writes crime fiction and I’ve heard enough good things to ensure I will be checking some of it out very soon. In the meantime however, under the pen name J D Oswald, he is embarking on his first foray into the realms of fantasy. Time to check out the opening book in The Ballad of Sir Benfro, Dreamwalker. Born…

1854 – The Allied armies prepare to besiege the Russian stronghold in the Crimea Harry Ryder is a maverick hero. Resentful of the army that destroyed his father and his own career, he has no time for incompetent commanders. He clashes with his superiors as fiercely as he fights the Russians. Four men, one woman and a game of cards will change everything and alter the course of a war. Something evil has crept into the ranks of the British Army’s own officers, an unknown enemy who plans lure men to ruin on the battlefields. The only path to victory lies in uncovering the truth, but to find it and confront his own destiny Ryder must charge with the Light Brigade into the Valley of Death itself… Taking its name from a line in the famous Tennyson poem, Into the Valley of Death covers the events that lead up to and the fallout from, the ill-fated Charge of The Light Brigade. I have to admit that prior to reading this novel the extent of my knowledge regarding the Charge of the Light Brigade, and the Crimean War as a whole, was somewhat limited. I’ve only ever read Flashman at the…