The Albino's Secret
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Embark on a thrilling alternate historical mystery with Sir Seaton Begg and Doctor Sinclair as they chase the enigmatic Red King assassin through the streets of Istanbul, perfect for fans of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who.
Sent undercover by Britain’s famed yet clandestine Temporal Agency to Istanbul, Detective Sir Seaton Begg and Doctor Sinclair are on the hunt for the Red King, the leader of a secretive group of assassins who are plotting to change the shape of the world. At the same time, the nascent Nazi forces are also in Istanbul, for their own reasons. Begg and Philips are thrust into a city that is in transition from the ancient to the modern, reflecting the state of the world in the early 1930s, and they are hard pressed on all sides by assassins and betrayals. Yet, one ally has emerged, an enemy from the past, the dreaded albino Monsieur Zenith, Begg’s nemesis.
Michael Moorcock, hailed as one of the “fifty greatest British writers since 1945” by Time, brings his masterful storytelling to this gripping tale, weaving elements of fantasy, action, and adventure into a thrilling tapestry. The Albino’s Secret is a must-read for those who revel in the thrill of the chase and the allure of the unknown.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This disappointing series launch from Hodder (The Burton & Swinburne series) and sci-fi novelist Moorcock (The Woods of Arcady) doesn't make the case for a sequel. Sir Seaton Begg and Doctor Taffy Sinclair both work for the British Temporal Service, travelling through time to maintain stability in the present. At the outset, they're assigned to visit 1930s Istanbul, which has been plagued by a master assassin known as the Red King. They arrive just in time to save an old frenemy, Violet Damm, from one of the Red King's minions. Violet informs her rescuers that her boss, Sir Vivian Clarke, head of the Secret Service's Turkish Bureau, is backing the Red King. Begg and Sinclair are puzzled, since they, too, are working for Clarke; they investigate Violet's claims after Clarke commissions them to look into one of his agents whom he suspects of going rogue. The story's hokey plotting is reflected in its pulpy prose ("I don't know why, but I feel as if, where this case is concerned, the fate of worlds is at stake!"). Readers will lose interest long before the climax arrives.
