the books
THE NOSTRADAMUS CURIOSITY
Michael Magister is back from the dead and Phoebe Le Breton has never been more alive, both are planning on a brighter, quieter future.
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But with the Special Branch hot on their trail and the Black Bishop dispatching his most brutal assassins, Michael and Phoebe’s world is about to be tragically ripped apart.
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Only a mild-mannered medium and her spirit guide, Nostradamus, know for certain what life will bring – or take away. And when two astronomers are found dead at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich...are the causes natural...
or Supernatural?
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Scotland Yard’s Head of the Special Branch, Superintendent William Melville, needs once again to ‘send for the magicians’ – but has their time run out?
The Nostradamus Curiosity is the third Steam, Smoke & Mirrors murder mystery featuring the slick, wise-cracking, crime-solving Steampunk Music Hall illusionists Michael Magister and Phoebe Le Breton, and threatens to be their most terrifying, nail-biting adventure yet. But will it be their last?
THE CLOCK IS TICKING ...
“I am almost too excited to write this….I have the draft copy in my hands! I can safely say that I have not enjoyed a book (or set of books) as much since I read the Hitchhiker’s tomes. I cannot wait to get back into the world of Michael Magister and Phoebe Le Breton - it is a phantasmagorical place and Colin weaves wonderful words that sweep you up and away.
The Nostradamus Curiosity will not disappoint - I have now read the opening chapter…so please sit and enjoy being transported back to an extraordinary future past!”
Mike Dixon – West End Musical Director
THE LAZARUS CURIOSITY
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BAFFLED by a severed arm, dangling from the centre of a locked door in the Bank of England…
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PANICKED by a satanic portrait painter, determined to disgrace the Royal family…
TERRORISED by a deadly gas, primed to wipe out the Government…
With great reluctance, what else can Superintendent William Melville of the Special Branch do but, once again, send for… THE MAGICIANS!
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When not performing two sold-out shows every night, Music Hall Steampunk illusionists and consultants to Scotland Yard, slick-talking Michael Magister and the feisty Phoebe Le Breton, must solve the crime of the century, while saving the nation from a conclave of fiendish psychopaths led by the crazed renegade Jesuit known only as ‘The Black Bishop’.
Murder and malevolence, treachery and tragedy
all must surely be inevitable!
Especially when the Tarot predicts – DEATH.
STEAM, SMOKE & MIRRORS
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When a Music Hall hypnotist escapes from the London County Asylum she leaves a single word on the wall of her cell - scrawled in blood:
‘MAGISTER’
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Terror then stalks the capital’s streets as the killing spree begins. But why does Superintendent William Melville of The Special Branch call upon the skills of brilliant stage magician Michael Magister and his glamorous assistant Phoebe Le Breton to help capture the murderer?
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Especially as Michael is one of those named on the death list.
From the recently discovered journals of Professor Artemus More, secrets are laid bare, mysteries revealed, illusions exposed and conspiracies uncovered, all in a Steampunk vision of Victorian Britain.
But is anything truly what it seems?
Or is it all just Steam, Smoke and Mirrors?
the novellas
THE MAGISTER CURIOSITY
A Steam, Smoke & Mirrors Novella
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In the Steampunk realm of 1919 in Her Majesty's Royal States of America, a sabotage explosion hurls two renowned scientists through the Nexus veil which divides our worlds.
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Just off Wall Street, in 2001, a destructive force flings a young street magician back in time.
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All three recover to find themselves in New York City.
But in 1889.
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With Nikola Tesla's assistance, Professor Artemus More, Dr Manswick 'Wicko' Smawl and Michael Magister must try to figure out how they can possibly return to their own times and homes, while trying to escape the clutches of some of the most famous figures of the era: businessman Thomas A. Edison, leading lady Lillian Russell, the World's Greatest Showman Phineas T. Barnum, oh, and a murderous gang hired by the fabulously wealthy 'Diamond Jim' Brady.
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Time is not on their side. But when was it ever?
THE WINDSOR CURIOSITY
A Steam, Smoke & Mirrors Short Story
Steampunk Music Hall magicians Michael Magister and Phoebe Le Breton
are commanded to give a Royal performance of baffling illusions at Windsor Castle
before an audience of loyal castle staff, devoted civil servants and
Her Majesty Queen Victoria.
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But a psychopath lurks among them, determined to murder the Monarch.
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Is the killer in the crowd? Or taking part in the show?
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With their trademark style and guile, can Michael and Phoebe uncover the crazed assassin and prevent one of the greatest outrages the world has ever seen?
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MAGIC, MAYHEM AND MURDER! Just another evening's work for
the Industrial Age Illusionist - Michael Magister
&
the Queen of Steam and Goddess of the Aethyr - Phoebe Le Breton.
the collections
20 SHADES OF PSYCHO
The Street Sounds Short Story Anthology
Volume 1
Short stories by
Pete Haynes, Garry Bushell, Craig Brackenridge, Rhoda Dakar, John King,
Colin Edmonds, Jonny Wah Wah, Christine Staple, Paolo Sedazzari, Tim Wells,
Joe Pasquale, Carrie Griffiths, Snowy and Pete McKenna, Garry Johnson