Publisher: The Book Guild Ltd
Publication Date: October 28, 2021
Everything that is going to happen already has.
During a disruption in the timeline of a sleepy Lake District village, the erratic and strung-out artist Haruki Kensagi cannot help but feel that he’s been here before, either in his past or in his future.
Haruki, struggling with both his painting and his mental health, disappears.
His long-suffering wife Jane Kensagi, herself a brilliant musician, interrupts her career to look for him unaware that a malignant and ageless entity awaits them both under the dark fells of the Lake District.
The estranged couple becomes caught up in a dangerously recursive series of events surrounding a dormant cosmic force.
They encounter a cabal of enigmatic characters who may hinder or help in equal measure. And over all this madness, the monstrous but charismatic Captain presides; part faith healer, part cult-leader, all saviour.
Haruki and Jane are taken to the limits of sanity and beyond in their attempt to escape from the evil that has been unleashed.
As far as Haruki Kensagi was concerned, the Captain didn’t need to say anything twice. His words were precious, and the congregation cherished every one of them.‘With my voice I am calling to you,’ the Captain’s words hung over the crowd, they drifted slowly along the hillside and ambled through the valley. The atmosphere was still and bated.He’d been chosen for this. That’s how the Captain had put it, and that’s how the other villagers saw it too. They looked annoyed when Haruki took centre stage in his attentions. They were clearly jealous, and muttered darkly to each other, as he passed them.But to his face they were open and welcoming. Each of those he’d met so far had intimated that something momentous was going to happen tonight. Haruki didn’t see that he had any choice but to wait and see. Besides, there was no denying that the Captain had captured his attention.Behind him was the dramatic slope of the hill the locals knew as ‘Noonday Sun’. Haruki and the others were gathered on its sister, ‘Midnight Moon’. From the position and colour of the sun, Haruki guessed the time to be six in the evening. The grasses that furred the slopes shone bright amber as the light raged hard against the oncoming evening.The Captain’s golden hair was loosely tied at the back of his head into a bun with a bright blue ribbon. Haruki always paid attention to colour and he knew it to be the same blue as the tarpaulin he’d found at the bottom of his pit.And the Captain’s eyes were the colour of the pit itself, dark and deep. Looking more closely he saw they were ringed with silver.Haruki had eventually climbed out of the pit, but it seemed to him that it was harder to escape the Captain’s dark and bottomless stare.Wearing jeans that accentuated his slim frame, the Captain’s denim shirt was open almost to the naval. A rosary hung around his neck. Christ dangled between his pectorals.‘I call each, and every one of you, but only one will answer.’One did answer. A lovely young woman stepped forward. She had braided blonde hair and wore a white cotton dress. ‘I answer you with my voice,’ the girl said. It was Judy. Haruki recognised her from the day before.‘Why have you come?’ the Captain said.‘I seek the truth, and to put an end to the lie.’ Judy said.‘Which lie?’‘The beautiful lie. The falsehood of living.’
David J Harrison only realised that Lord of the Rings had been read out to him as a sleeping child when as a teenager he sought an explanation for its familiarity. On a more conscious level, he was brought up on a diet of classic science fiction and fantasy, most notably the stories of Robert E Howard, Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp. Little wonder that he chose psychology as his degree subject. He works in biotechnology, specialising in medical devices and is excited to have contributed towards several important new medicines. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and children who he stops reading to when they fall asleep.
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