In the past couple of years Daily Grail Publishing has published paperback and ebook editions of the first two books in Blair MacKenzie Blake’s paranormal/visionary/UFO/occult fiction trilogy (The Othering and The Paragon Junk), and we’re now pleased to announce that the final book in the series has been published: Grumble’s Star (again available in paperback and ebook editions).
Blair – website content manager for the mighty Tool, and contributor to every volume of our Darklore series – has a fantastic way with words and a deep knowledge of many esoteric subjects – from the occult, to UFOs, hidden history and psychedelics, so his novels are sure to be of interest to many Grailers.
Here’s the blurb for Grumble’s Star:
While searching for a legendary treasure believed to have been buried at a rural Virginia location, Jack Atkins is given a fresh lead at an estate sale. Among the rare volumes in the library of the family’s patriarch, Grumble, is a dusty copy of Sir Francis Bacon’s unfinished utopian work entitled New Atlantis. Jeremy Pye, a fellow seeker of fortune that Jack befriends, is convinced that a finished copy was spirited away in the past and still remains concealed in a hidden vault, and that what this ‘perfected’ version reveals is infinitely more valuable than a hoard of gold.
While exploring the connections between a Masonic allegory embedded in cipher texts and those ingeniously encoded in the works of Shakespeare – in particular the bard’s swan song, The Tempest – they unmask a cabal of illustrious figures known as “The Good Pens”. Meanwhile, Jack is smitten with Grumble’s great granddaughter, Callie, who is in possession of a family ‘heirloom’ – an artifact of unfathomable antiquity that, at times, appears to be sentient. This might explain why shadowy government types watch their every move, along with a mysterious presence that attempts to guide them on their quest with visions whose meaning they struggle to grasp.
Soon, the three are drawn to a private island near Bermuda, whose enigmatic owner is inclined to pleonexia – “an insatiable desire to have what rightfully belongs to others”. Living in a paradise that contains parallels with the enchanted isle of The Tempest, they are witness to undreamed of things that enduring myths of fantastic events in distant times give only a faint penciling thereof.
For more information about Grumble’s Star, and the ‘inspiration’ behind it, be sure to check out Blair’s post about it on Tool’s website.
And here’s links to all three of the books in the trilogy on Amazon, if you wanted to grab the entire set:
