BOOK SUMMARIES

 

 

 

To Cast A Long Shadow means that, somewhere, wheels are turning.  The shadow lengthens and grows deeper, darker.  From a single seed of death, a monstrous plot is born.  If it succeeds, it won’t mean the end of the world, just the destruction of everyone in the San Francisco Legacy house.  So why are they doing all they can to help this darkness to grow?

 

Late September.  Summer’s finally come to the City by the Bay.  It’s also brought a batch of newspaper reports about the ghost ship which appears along the Central Coast.  Will it show up again this year?  Nick wants to be there if it does.  Derek decides to go with him, leaving Alex in the hot seat.  A few days later, she gets a call ...  In A Sea Of Trouble, Alex finds herself leading the investigation – not into the ghost ship but into the disappearance of her colleagues.  Can Alex piece the puzzle together before their time runs out?

Dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.

 

It’s Christmas Eve at the San Francisco Legacy House.  The house is lit, the trees look festive, everyone’s in bed and Santa’s about to call, bearing gifts .. but these gifts aren’t usual.  These gifts are very extraordinary because they answer a question.  In The Chimes At Midnight, a special type of magic comes to the residents of Angel Island.

 

After concluding an investigation, the Legacy team (plus one) start for home but it’s a long journey, it’s late and the snow’s getting thicker.  Eventually, they have to stop to wait out the storm, taking shelter in an old, closed, roadside diner.  To pass the time, they tell each other stories ...  Only trouble is, they’re not the only ones listening.  Adding to the fun is a bunch of lonely, bored, restless spirits – the Fried Green Ghosts of the Mountain Pass Cafe.  Anyone say food fight?

 

Wheel Of Fire

Part I: Blood Genesis – chronicles the historic first meeting of the Flamefalls with the ‘scholars’, otherwise known as the Legacy, and goes into their turbulent first years, over one thousand years before the birth of Christ.

Part II: Blood Price – brings us more up to date – the middle 1940s to middle 1950s, and covers the impossible: what brings a Flamefall to cross the line. 

Part III: Blood Debt – the present day and concludes the threads started in I and II.  A battle is coming between Heaven and Hell, when brother confronts brother.  A battle is coming on Earth, when Flamefall goes against Flamefall.  It’s time for retribution and payback .. but there are no guarantees.  This is an evil the world has never seen before and, without the help of their old allies, the Flamefalls might not survive.

 

No plan is ever set in stone so it’s a good thing Legacy members can adapt quickly.  In Roses In December, Alex takes Jack north of the border and has to deal with the fallout, Derek and Pete Miller help Nick with a request from the Tokyo Legacy house which begins innocently enough but soon involves the strange death of a flight crew, Merlin takes Kat with her on vacation to Hawaii and both run into old ‘friends’ while Rachel’s invitation to speak at a conference in London finds her meeting a tall, dark, mysterious stranger …

 

The war between good and evil has been fought for millennia but people aren’t usually asked to choose sides.  In The Counting House, Nick and Merlin, Alex and Philip have to do just that – choose sides and, surprisingly, it isn’t an easy choice to make.  But, if they don’t, they’ll never escape the town beneath the strange house on the hill, the town where this war is all that is ever fought …

 

In Outside The Door, it’s the time for the yearly group vacation.  This year, Andy and his friends have chosen Haystone Manor as their location.  Haystone is – reputedly – the most haunted house in northern California.  Will they crack the secrets alone – or will they need the Luna Foundation’s help?

 

When the call comes, it’s almost more than anyone can bear.  On the way back from New York, Derek’s and Merlin’s plane has crashed.  They’ve survived but they’re in the ICU.  While Nick, Rachel and Alex investigate the reason for the crash, Derek and Merlin are in limbo.  And, there, they find A Good Deal Too Strange to be believed.

 

When Anna Cowley finally arrives in San Francisco for her promised tour, Derek is delighted to see her.  Murray Snowden turns up soon after with a strange request.  Soon, they are on their way to Egypt to see if there could be any truth to the Pharaoh’s curse.  In To Bleed A While, they find that there isn’t and yet there is.

 

The arrival of Steve Anthony to the San Francisco Legacy house seems like a bad dream to Nick but his troubles are only just beginning.  Soon Steve is going to be Nick’s worst nightmare come true .. but, by then, Nick doesn’t appear to care.  In Dare Devil, it falls to the other members of the house to first find out what is happening and then to save both men.