Romantic Chrononaut

Rumors swirl -- can thesabotage of Nicola Tesla's network of aether towers can be laid at the feet of the "Elf King"?King Edward's Secret Servicecalls out Kate Cameron's husband Dougray out of retirement to investigate, and Kate follows. In horror she watches her husband plunge into the churning surf and boulders as a tower collapses with a mighty groan. What amplifies the anguish is the gentleman beside her, slow-clapping as her world collapses. What kind of monster would do that?Kate turns to demand an explanation -- but he's gone. Surely he knew something, planned something, surely he killed her husband!Kate Cameron, twenty-first century healer turned twentieth century Scots housewife, vows to unleash ancient furies on that man! She will hunt him down, tear a grovelling apology from him, and then serve justice on himBut how to track him? Ah! The card he handed her -- Errol Koenig lives in Paris! Newly widowed Kate Cameron will hunt Errol Koenig in Paris, and there end him!Aided by those she meets, including Winston Churchill, P G Wodehouse, Mata Hari, Arsne Lupin, Nicola Tesla, and Kemal Ataturk, she pursues her prey across Europe to Constantinople and beyond, travelling by Orient Express, Tesla's aethership, automaton Janissary, and xebec.Kate's pursuit is relentless -- but somehow ... the moment to end Koenig's life never arrives. Is it his strange allure that stays her hand, weakens her will? What powers does this man of mystery have? Could he truly be the Elf King?And could his whispers that her husband survived his fall, and is recuperating -- could they possibly be true?Like lightning flashes the answers come in a wizards' duel atop an ancient castle, ona dark and stormynight.

New widow Kate Cameron feels empty and lost, with nowhere to be and nowhere to go when she finishes her meditations at the foot of Mt. Ararat. She embarks on a journey through the Caucasus, the beauty of the land bringing her heart back to life – until the saboteur's bomb derails everything. In 1905 Tsarist Russia struggles to decide what it will be in the twentieth century, and Kate finds herself right in the middle of the conflict. She finds safety by joining a swami and a strongman escorting a strange traveler from Tibet to St. Petersburg. The secretive stranger bears a long-lost holy Christian relic which he intends to present to the Tsar at an exhibition planned for the Russian capital, where Kate and the voyagers shall represent the diverse peoples of the evolving Russian Empire, like avatars of the coming age of technology, freedom and faith. With their train wrecked the four take advantage of the Tsar's private hypersteam train, offered by the secret policeman eager to report on what he's learned about the recent bombings. News and rumors of distant disasters, mutiny and massacre imperil their journey and make them wonder -- just what are they racing toward? It's true their group is pursued by a violent subversive and his mysterious master -- who bound across Russia in the chicken-legged cottage of an evicted witch! With every verst the companions' leisurely and luxurious trip becomes more fantastic and frightening.Will their train also be derailed? Will the holy relic the pilgrim carries bring the peace Russia desperately needs? As her world spins off its axis there's no telling whom Kate should trust, where she might find safety, what 'facts' and 'truths' can be relied on, or what a new widow should do with her life. Despite the uncertainty, the show must go on. Russian nobility, the wealthy and the common people all gather in the capital for the grand spectacle meant to reassure all that the Empire is well, her people live in blessed harmony, and technology promises a better future. Under the Tsar's loving hand modernity and brotherly affection shall prevail and Russia will take her rightful place in the modern world at last. Surely these difficult times will bring all Russians together, living their faith in the future of Mother Russia -- or is this exhibition the ideal setting for the subversives' most spectacular and deadly plot?Will the world's largest continental empire implode in revolutionary fury? Will the chaos catch up Kate in its ruthless and wild passions?As civilization falls apart will Kate end up on her back again?Some sex, some violence.The third book in the Reluctant Chrononaut series, hard on the heels of Caught in The Wizards' Duel. Lindsay Petersen is a native of Leeds, Alabama, where she grew up feeling she had been born a century too late – and likely even in the wrong Leeds.She's lived all over the world, but most enjoyed Paris, where she studied the French allure of l'amour, and Delhi where she won a coveted first in her studies of the Kama Sutra, excelling especially in her lab work.She lives and travels with her husband, who calls himself "the luckiest man in the world." Lindsay Petersen agrees with him.