Description: When one man changes history, history changes everyone. London, 1861. Burton and Swinburne stand at a crossroads in their lives and are caught in the epicenter of an empire torn by conflicting forces.
Brief description: Mark Hodder is the author of the Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack and its seven sequels, and of the first officially sanctioned Sexton Blake novel to have been published in nearly half a century (he created and maintains BLAKIANA: The Sexton Blake Resource). He also writes short stories, flash fiction, and vignettes. Find out more on his Patreon page. Mark was born in the UK. He has worked as a commercial radio scriptwriter, a freelance copywriter, and as a web content producer for the BBC. Since 2009, he has lived in Valencia, Spain, where he writes full-time. He and his partner have twins, Luca and Iris.
Review Quotes: Praise for the Philip K. Dick Award-winning Burton & Swinburne books:
"The usual superlatives for really clever fantasy (imaginative, mind-bending, phantasmagorical) aren't nearly big enough for this debut novel. With this one book, Hodder has put himself on the genre map."-Booklist, starred review of The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack "Hodder, with an encyclopedic grasp of period detail, tellingly brings these disparate, oddly familiar yet eerily different worlds to fecund life. Enthralling, dizzying, and as impressive as they come."
-Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Every once in a while I come across a book, or series of books, that totally yanks the carpet out from under me. Then it reaches out, smashes me in the face with its awesomeness, and says, 'You love me!' Leaving me with naught to do but obligingly respond, 'Yes. Yes I do.' [The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man] was every bit the book that I had hoped it would be."
-Elitist Book Reviews "Whatever one chooses to call [The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack], it would be very difficult to deny its overwhelming brilliance. I can't remember the last time a novel has surprised, awed, and enthused me so utterly that I'm almost left at a loss for words for how to recommend it."
-Rob Will Review