In the Island of Angels Series, Book 2
(Can be read as a standalone)
Historical Fiction
Date Published: 10-28-2024
Publisher: The Book Guild
1580.
Nelan Michaels is a young Flemish, Protestant immigrant who seeks to right
the wrongs committed against his family by Catholic Spain, the most powerful
nation of the time.
On the way to delivering a message to Francis Walsingham, Queen
Elizabeth’s spymaster, Nelan finds a plough head buried in the ground.
It sparks a premonition that shapes his future.
Nelan sets out to find Eleanor, his long lost love. During his search, he
meets a Gypsy shaman who prophesies that he’s to become a Fyremaster
and play a leading role in the unfolding destiny of the Island of
Angels.
In 1588, Nelan meets his destiny on the night of the Harvest Moon off
Calais in France. It was midnight when it happened. His mysterious
intervention changed the course of the sea battle between the English fleet
and the Spanish Armada, and changed England’s destiny.
It was a midnight of eights.
The Midnight of Eights is the final book in The Island of Angels series: a
two-book saga that tells the epic story and secret history of England’s
coming of age during the Elizabethan era.
In Book 1, The Mark of the Salamander, Nelan is pressed onto the Golden
Hind. During the circumnavigation, he embarks on a voyage of discovery of
himself, and learns the arcane arts of the salamander, the mysterious spirit
of fire.
EXCERPT
The Midnight of Eights
Except from
Chapter Thirty Five: Belled and Jessed
21st August 1588
… That day, a messenger delivered a request from Walsingham summoning Nelan to the fox’s den. As he mounted his steed, the flies, gnats, and mosquitoes flitted around, intoxicated by the day’s golden hues.
On his way to Barn Elms, Nelan pondered how the fleet had achieved the great repulse of the Armada. Curious it was that the two fleets only fully locked horns in French waters, at Calais and Gravelines. It was as if some invisible force separated them one from the other, which only dissolved once both fleets had departed English waters.
Today, the 21st of August, formed the cusp between the astrological influence of Leo and Virgo, the Queen’s birth sign. He kept wondering about the sign of Leo. Then he got it. It was obvious. He walked around it. The ox-bow was the same shape as the symbol for Leo, a sort of upside-down ‘U’ with curls at either end… ♌ The shape that a bird flying high over that part of the river would see.
The English fleet had shadowed the Armada from the 29th of July to the 12th of August. This fifteen-day period fell exactly in the middle of the astrological month of Leo, and so filled the hearts of the English mariners with the courage of the king of the beasts.
What of the midnight of eights?
About the Author
JUSTIN NEWLAND’s novels represent an innovative blend of genres from
historical adventure to supernatural thriller and magical realism.
Undeterred by the award of a Maths Doctorate, he conceived his debut novel,
The Genes of Isis (ISBN 9781789014860, Matador, 2018), an epic fantasy set
under Ancient Egyptian skies.
His second book, The Old Dragon’s Head (ISBN 9781789015829, Matador,
2018), and is set in Ming Dynasty China in the shadows of the Great
Wall.
Set during the Great Enlightenment, The Coronation (ISBN 9781838591885,
Matador, 2019) speculates on the genesis of the most important event in the
modern world – the Industrial Revolution.
The Abdication (ISBN 9781800463950, Matador, 2021) is a mystery thriller in
which a young woman confronts her faith in a higher purpose and what it
means to abdicate that faith.
The Mark of the Salamander (ISBN 9781915853271, Book Guild, 2023), is the
first in a two-book series, The Island of Angels. Set in the Elizabethan
era, it tells the epic tale of England’s coming of age.
The latest is The Midnight of Eights (ISBN 9781835740 330, Book Guild,
2024), the second in The Island of Angels series, which charts the uncanny
coincidences of time and tide that culminated in the repulse of the Spanish
Armada.
His work in progress is The Spirit of the Times which explores the
traumatic events of the 14th Century on the Silk Road and featuring an
unlikely cast of Genghis Khan, the Black Plague, all shrouded in the mystery
of a nursery rhyme that begins ‘Ring a-ring a-roses’.
Author, speaker and broadcaster, Justin gives talks to historical
associations and libraries, appears on LitFest panels, and enjoys giving
radio interviews. He lives with his partner in plain sight of the Mendip
Hills in Somerset, England.
Contact Links
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Purchase Links
https://mybook.to/TheMidnightofEights
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