Bøker av Blair MacKenzie Blake

While searching for a legendary treasure believed to have been buried at a rural Virginia location, Jack Atkins is given a fresh lead at an estate sale. Among the rare volumes in the library of the family's patriarch, Grumble, is a dusty copy of Sir Francis Bacon's unfinished utopian work entitled 'New Atlantis'. Jeremy Pye, a fellow seeker of fortune that Jack befriends, is convinced that a finished copy was spirited away in the past and still remains concealed in a hidden vault, and that what this 'perfected' version reveals is infinitely more valuable than a hoard of gold. While exploring the connections between a Maonic allegory embedded in cipher texts and those ingeniously encoded in the works of Shakespeare - in particular the bard's swan song, 'The Tempest' - they unmask a cabal of illustrious figures known as "The Good Pens". Meanwhile, Jack is smitten with Grumble's great granddaughter, Callie, who is in possession of a family 'heirloom' - an artifact of unfathomable antiquity that, at times, appears to be sentient. This might explain why shadowy government types watch their every move, along with a mysterious presence that attempts to guide them on their quest with visions whose meaning they struggle to grasp. Soon, the three are drawn to a private island near Bermuda, whose enigmatic owner is inclined to pleonexia - "an insatiable desire to have what rightfully belongs to others". Living in a paradise that contains parallels with the enchanted isle of 'The Tempest', they are witness to undreamed of things that enduring myths of fantastic events in distant times give only a faint penciling thereof.

Growing up in Southern Illinois in the 1960s, Addison Albright appears to be a typical mischievous teen - even though the manner in which birds flit from branch to branch in the placid suburb troubles him. Oddities in his childhood memories also cause him to wonder if things are really as they seem in "Little Egypt"? The one person who might know is the town villain, Maxx "Molewhisker" Schaufler - a former undertaker with a hotrod hearse who Addison encounters in a private cemetery with curious grave markers. Not only is the old codger''s appearance unusual, there''s something peculiar about his ramshackle Victorian that Addison soon comes to realize. ∩╗┐As a series of perplexing events has him teetering on the brink of insanity, someone else is attracted to Molewhisker''s afflicted mirror: a scholarly biker named Zerrill who claims to be a member of an epigraphic society. After involving himself in the strange relationship between the enigmatic Schaufler and the boy struggling to free himself from his mysterious control, his true agenda is called into question. Exploiting the town folk to achieve his cryptic objective, the narrative darkens when Addison becomes infatuated with a gorgeous college girl with esoteric interests. As the three match wits while attempting to unravel a local legend that could revise world history, their lives will be forever changed when they discover the shocking truth revealed in the othering.