Available soon: an original Mercia Blakewood short novel, first released during lockdown in instalments and now coming to buy as a full ebook with new chapter included!
Lord have mercy upon us…
Summer, 1665. Fresh from her transatlantic adventures, Mercia Blakewood has been restored to her Oxfordshire home, recovering from her ordeals with the help of good friend Nicholas Wildmoor. But the dangers she has faced are about to be eclipsed by a deadlier foe. When a peddler arrives at Halescott Manor bearing news of London’s worsening plague, Nicholas returns to his family in the city while Mercia determines she too must help a band of travelling musicians in need. As the summer goes by, she and Nicholas come face to face with the ordinary – and not-so-ordinary – people of England, whose personal stories of hope and villainy ignite a courage that will always thrive amidst even the toughest of days.
As a special release for the lockdown, I wrote an original Mercia Blakewood story that I made available on this website: SURVIVAL, or TALES OF HOPE AND VILLAINY FROM A TIME OF PLAGUE.
Mercia’s previous adventure Traitor concludes in June 1665, at the outset of that year’s great plague. It seemed fitting for this new story to follow directly on from then, reaching into the lessons of the past to tell a tale that speaks to our own age, uncovering surprising similarities and taking courage from those who lived before us.
In Survival, Mercia is joined as protagonist by regular favourite Nicholas Wildmoor, who travels to his home city of London while Mercia takes charge in the shires. Interspersed throughout, a series of individual characters brings the spirit of those days to life, starting with the elderly survivor of plagues before, with many more of her compatriots to follow.
So rejoin Mercia and Nicholas, or meet them for the first time, and above all, enjoy. The Summer of 1665 was a tough time, but it saw acts of hope shine through the despair, and numerous instances of kindness and self-sacrifice, much as has happened more recently. But who are the strange musicians who appear on Mercia’s lands? And with London shutting down from fear of plague, will Nicholas be able to help her discover the truth?
Read Survival, coming soon, to find out!