“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” ― Oscar Wilde
Title: Remnant
Author: KJ Charles and Jordan L. Hawk
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages/Word Count: 51 Pages
Rating: 5 Stars
Blurb: London, 1899. The beautiful people are dying…
A malevolent power is attacking London’s bright young things, and the only clue to what’s happening is written in ancient Egyptian script. As ghost-hunter Simon Feximal and his companion Robert Caldwell investigate the mysterious deaths, the arrival in London of a notorious scholar-sorcerer seems to hold the answer to more than one of their problems.
A quiet break in London while en route to Egypt turns dramatic for Dr Percival Endicott Whyborne and his lover Griffin Flaherty when they encounter the hostile ghost-hunter. Feximal clearly suspects the worst of Whyborne – and his flirtatious sidekick seems to think a great deal too well of Griffin…
Jordan L Hawk’s heroes Whyborne and Griffin meet KJ Charles’ occult detectives from the Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal in a mystery that takes all four lovers through the decadent underworld of Victorian London in pursuit of an ancient and deadly evil.
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Review: What happens when two of M/Ms leading historical speculative fiction authors bring four of their leading men together in one FREE story that pits death and magic against some of the greatest sleuthing minds in history?
Remnant
And, to quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail, there was much rejoicing. Yaaaay!
Love takes a deadly turn in this brief interlude of both the Whyborne & Griffin and the Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal series, as Percival and Griffin make London a stop on their way to Egypt only to discover their welcome to foreign shores is somewhat less than warm, or even welcome, for that matter, as far as the surly Simon Feximal is concerned. This is not the interaction I expected between these men, which was not only a great surprise but was a bit of a humorous one as well. Suspicion…ooooh…yes, actions and motives were suspect, first impressions didn’t bode well for the lot of them, and what resulted was an outstanding bit of friction and a budding friendship that, well, is at least halfway too fruition.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that, although both of the authors may disagree with me, this story could be read as a standalone. The mystery and suspense and supernatural elements are top notch reasons to want to delve into this book, so much so that Whyborne and Griffin, and Feximal and his lover Robert Caldwell, are driven by the plot as much as Whyborne and Robert are driven to narrate this story of cheating destiny and manipulating affairs of the heart, and it’s not necessarily true that one must already know these characters intimately in order to appreciate their various charms and talents. If you’ve not read either of the series, this just might be a great place to start falling in love with these men, one masterfully macabre moment at a time.
If you love freakishly fun fantasy, writing that is fluid and fluent and filled with mysticism and malevolence, and characters who are flush with fortitude in the face of every danger, you won’t want to miss what these two authors have got their four men up to in Remnant.
You can download Remnant here:
