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Authors on Characters

Penmore Press authors offer a rich and entertaining array of short reflections on characters and how they were created in the novels. READ

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J.G. Harlond

Secret agents, skulduggery, and sea voyages . . .

Creator of the infamous Ludo da Portovenere, J.G. Harlond (Jane) writes page-turning historical crime novels set during the 17^th Century and World War II. Each story weaves fictional characters into real events.

Jane also writes Viking-age historical fantasy drawing on Norse myths and legends.

Prior to becoming a full-time fiction author, Jane worked in international education and wrote a number of school textbooks for Oxford University Press.

After travelling widely – she has visited or lived in most of the locations in her novels – she is now settled in her husband’s home province of Andalucía, Spain.

Find out more about J.G. Harlond on her web page and blog: www.jgharlond.com

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The Doomsong Voyage

The Doomsong Voyage is an enthralling fantasy novel rooted in Norse myths and deeply grounded in historical evidence. Author J.G. Harlond spins an immersive, beautifully written tale of one man’s quest to find the rightful owner of a legendary sword and, by doing so, save his people from certain doom.Story-teller Finn is no adventurer, nor does he have any battle skills. To his shock, he is chosen by a magical being known as Master Odo to hand-carry the Doomsong Sword across the seas to a bloodthirsty pirate in the south. The tests he faces along the way make for a rollicking adventure underpinned by Viking lore and populated by the supernatural creatures of Norse mythology.
J.G. Harlond’s superb world building and authentic historical details, along with an engaging cast of characters led by the humble but courageous Finn, make for a thoroughly enjoyable journey into a world of fantasy, magic, and high-seas adventure. Though this book (the companion to The Doomsong Sword) is aimed at a young audience, adult readers will find this tale fascinating, too. Highly recommended.
Amy Maroney, author of the Miramonde Series

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A Turning Wind

Book 2 of The Chosen Man trilogy. From the trading colony of Goa to the royal courts of England and Spain, Ludo da Portovenere completes difficult and dangerous secret commissions on his own terms and for his own reasons. But, as these tasks bring him closer to success, Ludo is forced to confront dangerous secrets of his own. While Ludo pursues a delicate mission for the English queen in the Spanish royal court, Alina, Baroness Metherall, faces new challenges and dangers as she comes to terms with what it means to be married to one person and love another. Ultimately, Ludo and Alina must decide who they really are, and to what extent their shared past should influence their future.

“Harlond’s brilliantly realized portrait of the sea-trade in 17th century is a gem…Ludo is a great character with wit, intelligence and daring. Exploiting his position as an envoy between Charles I and the Spanish court results in a seafaring novel of danger and double-dealing. Highly recommended.” Deborah Swift, author of Pleasing Mr Pepys “Ms. Harlond details a credible, intricate world of deals and alliances, threats and opportunities, uncertainty and trust, in which her hero, the wily Genoese merchant Ludo da Portovenere, must tread with extreme caution. Let’s hear yet more of him!” — Antoine Vanner, author of the Dawlish Chronicles series

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The Chosen Man

Book 1 of The Chosen Man trilogy. Rome 1635. As Flanders braces for another long year of war, a Spanish count presents the Vatican with a means of disrupting the Dutch rebels’ booming economy. His plan is brilliant. They just need the right man to implement it. Enter Ludovico da Portovenere, a charismatic spice and silk merchant. Intrigued by the Vatican’s proposal—and hungry for profit—Ludo sets off for Amsterdam. His voyage is interrupted, first by a timid English priest with a message from Rome, then by a storm, then by a pirate raid. The storm brings him a quick-witted young admirer he uses as a spy. The pirate raid brings him a girl, Alina, who won’t go home. Each development has significant consequences for Ludo and even greater ones for the people he has involved in his plans.

“J. G. Harlond is a real find. The Chosen Man is a novel with everything going for it: a cracking story centered on an intriguing and charismatic hero … the author wants to pull you in and entertain you. And succeeds triumphantly. I’m keeping my fingers crossed there will be more.” — Sarah Harrison (The Flowers of the Field trilogy)

“A compelling adventure with humour and serious implications, filled with believable and complex characters. A Vatican plot to manipulate the political landscape of Europe . . . A story with lessons for the modern world.” — Ann Swinfen, author of the Christoval Alvarez Series, Flood and This Rough Ocean

“The mark of a good book is the sense of loss you feel when you reach the end. I finished The Chosen Man yesterday and I’m still thinking about the characters today! I hope the author does a sequel. The characters are believable, and the plots wound together faultlessly. I was fascinated to learn more about Tulip Mania and the descriptions of the house and staff at Crimphele in Cornwall were perfect. This book would make a very good film. A first class read.” — Ricky Leach, journalist and reporter for SUR in English, Spain

“Fun and full of energy, black comedy abounds. The slow-burning romance between Ludo the loveable rogue, and Alina, the feisty Spanish girl stranded in a foreign country, adds to the enjoyment. An entertaining read.” — Jean Gill author of Song at Dawn series, winner of the Global ebooks award for best Historical Fiction

“The Chosen Man’ is an ambitious book which takes 17th century characters – from four different European countries – and successfully weaves their lives into a tapestry of political and religious intrigue and drama. (It) has everything: shipwrecks; kidnap; piracy and romance – all set against the well-researched background of the first economic bubble in history. Harlond brilliantly evokes both the buzzing commercial excitement and culture of the Dutch capital and the gentle beauty and slow rhythm of a remote Cornish baronial estate. Yet menace lurks beneath the surface even in this rural idyll. I cared deeply about all the characters and the sinister undertones of both locations were well-sustained, ensuring I came back to the book quickly to check they all survived. Harlond is also ambitious in the theme of romance. Never mind a love-triangle, this was a love quartet. Alina’s dilemma kept us on our toes right until the last page. Which one of those three distinctive male characters will the independent Alina choose? Her gentle aristocratic, yet sickly husband? Marco, the attractive self-made fellow Spaniard who has always loved her? Or Ludo the Italian pirate; Ludo bad-boy who lives by his wits, manipulates the Dutch and turns the European balance of power on its head, while side-stepping assassination attempts. A satisfying ending which demands a sequel.” — Karen Charlton best-selling author of the Detective Lavender series

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Local Resistance

On a stormy night in March 1941, Maisie Rose Hawkins leaves her drunk husband, Stan, out in the rain—and he disappears. Detective Sergeant Bob Robbins and young PC Laurie Oliver are called out to investigate and discover that Stan’s small fishing boat is gone, the rope sawn through. As Bob searches for answers, it becomes apparent that in this small Cornish village where everyone knows everything about everybody, nobody quite knows the truth. Beneath the surface of village life, a fierce battle is being waged against wartime deprivations. Shopkeepers quietly evade rationing restrictions. Food inspector Archibald Bantry, charged with enforcing those restrictions, dies in a suspicious car crash. Various leads connect a sea cave full of smuggled black-market goods to the missing Stan Hawkins. And what seems like the work of local malcontents becomes more complex and dangerous when Bob stumbles on the truth in a disused copper mine, where a much deadlier affair is underway.

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The Empress Emerald

Abandoned as a child in a Bombay orphanage, Leo Kazan’s life takes an unanticipated turn when he becomes the protégé of Sir Lionel Pinecoffin, the city’s District Political Officer in Bombay. Under Pinecoffin’s tutelage, the boy, adept at learning languages and theft, is trained as a spy and becomes immersed in international espionage, revolutionary politics, and diamond smuggling. In 1918, during a visit to London, he has a brief but memorable affair with a young English woman Davina Dymond in London before leaving for Russia. Separated, their lives take different turns. As he matures Leo begins to question his family history, seeking to uncover the truth about his parents. A pregnant Davina is married off and exiled to Spain, where she gives birth to Leo’s daughter. They are fated to meet again in Gibraltar in 1936, their love rekindled. But a new war plunges Europe into crisis, the Spanish Civil War tearing them apart, leaving, Leo and Davina in a fight to reclaim their lives and their love amid the violent storms of war.

“In epic and enthralling novel of love and separation, betrayal and treachery, which sweeps the reader across continents from India and Russia to Spain and England. Individual lives are torn apart by the flood of war and political manipulation, yet even as they struggle in that drowning tide, Leo and Davina discover their own identities and place of belonging. Cinematic, with a rich tapestry of colour and characters.” — Karen Maitland, Best-selling author and winner of Prix d’or for Best International Noir Novel, The Gallows Curse