Torc of Moonlight trilogy

Ever tossed coins into a "wishing well"? 
History lies mere inches beneath our feet. Disturb it at your peril.

I’ve always been a walker, taking particular interest in ancient landscape details left by those who walked before me. Map in hand, I noticed that certain aspects repeated with surprising regularity. Research showed that Yorkshire has more ancient springs named ‘Lady Well’ than anywhere in England. When I discovered the reason, I had my novels of Nick and Alice defying the past and the future to live in the present.

When does a deity die? In truth it never does; it fades only when its believers stop believing or a newer religious icon suffocates and replaces it. But what if a single believer has been trapped to provide a continuous, if tainted, reverence? Nature beats with a heart far slower than that of a human and its patience is infinite. The trouble with humans is... they no longer believe.


TORC OF MOONLIGHT - Book 1 - Hull : Celtic
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'Stay away from me. Don't you understand? People close to me die.'
    Nick believes Alice is overreacting. She's been unlucky in her life, that's all. Coincidences - they happen all the time. It had been coincidence that they'd locked gazes during the lecture, a trick of the light that had lifted her auburn hair. But is it coincidence that someone, some thing, is distancing him from his friends as the need to possess Alice builds?
    Drawn into her obsession with finding a shrine to a Celtic water goddess, and drowning in sensual pleasure, Nick is in denial... until he sees a jewelled sword fade in his hand and knows that he, or the thing that shadows him, has held it, and bloodied it, long ago. To tell Alice will make her flee. To stay silent could kill her.

 ...Acaster's narrative voice is punchy, crisp and authoritative… Her descriptions of the world of nature are evocative and sympathetic. Torc of Moonlight is a highly enjoyable read; the kind of story that has you thinking about it long after you've put it down...


THE BULL AT THE GATE - Book 2 - York : Roman
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With Alice beyond his reach, Nick has moved to York, a mediaeval city of crooked half-timbered houses and tight cobbled streets where Viking re-enactors thrill the tourists. But York was once a Roman colonia that garrisoned the Ninth Legion and the Sixth Victrix, and the stains of older, sacrificial, deaths lie buried deep in modern cellars. 
   When a female student disappears the police start asking awkward questions about Alice, and Nick finds himself a suspect. Why has an artefact from the Temple of Mithras appeared on his desk? Could Alice and the girl be trapped together, and if he frees the girl can he free Alice?

...Are Nick’s experiences real, imaginary, glimpses of another world and time, or the product of a damaged mind struggling with a past event too difficult to face? In weaving the tale, Linda Acaster keeps the reader guessing, providing clues but muddying the waters with an unreliable narrator...


PILGRIMS OF THE POOL - Book 3 - Durham : Mediaeval
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Nick drives south from Durham University to free Alice from the Pool. 900 years earlier a group of pilgrims tread the same route, their quest a fabled spring where an angel-woman cures all ills.
   Both Brother Ernald and Nick are haunted by their indecision. Ernald has transgressed yet not sought confession; Nick fears his promise to Alice cannot be met.
   Alice is overjoyed to be reunited with Nick, but she is not the Alice he remembers. His life has changed, too, leaving him caught between betrayals. 
  When her presence at the Pool is jeopardised by a fracking company and conservation activists opposing it, Nick cannot walk away. But can he change events in a mediaeval past of hallowed saints and conjured demons? Has Alice’s power of healing initiated her own demise?




TORC OF MOONLIGHT BOX SET (Bks 1-3)
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The full three novels in one downloadable file. Read a 7-chapter preview by clicking the option in the right-hand column. 

Catch the launch blogpost White Ladies and Green Teeth for information on the changing face of British water goddesses down the ages.

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