The Coffee Pot Blog Tours present: Island of Dreams by Harry Duffin

Book Title:  Island of Dreams

Author:   Harry Duffin

Publication Date:  December 2022

Publisher:   Cumulus Publishing

Page Length:  420

Genre:  Historical Family Saga

Tour Schedule:  

Island of Dreams

By Harry Duffin

In May 1939, when Professor Carl Mueller, his wife, Esther, and their three children flee Nazi Germany, and find refuge on the paradise island of Cuba, they are all full of hopes and dreams for a safe and happy future.  

But those dreams are shattered when Carl and Esther are confronted by a ghost from their past, and old betrayals return to haunt them. 

The turbulent years of political corruption leading to Batista’s dictatorship, forces the older children to take very different paths to pursue their own dangerous dreams. 

And - among the chaos and the conflict that finally leads to Castro’s revolution and victory in 1959, an unlikely love begins to grow - a love that threatens the whole family. 

Having escaped a war-torn Europe, their Island of Dreams is to tear them apart forever.

Island of Dreams

By Harry Duffin

Read an Excerpt 

As the wailing combined with the throb of the engines, Anna turned away from the crowd lining the rails. She felt her parents needed her and she needed to be with them. If they were to die, they would begin their final journey together as a family.

   She had just reached the main stairway to go back inside the ship, when she heard a man cry out. Fearing another suicide attempt she turned to look. 

  ‘Look!’ the man shouted again, excitedly. 

  All eyes followed his pointing finger. Anna went back to the agitated crowd and wormed her way through to see the cause of the excitement.   

  A small, stubby boat was racing through the water towards them. As the craft grew larger, approaching the cordon of police boats still surrounding the ship, the passengers started chattering excitedly. The helmsman of the boat was a plump black man. Beside him stood a young policeman and another man in a crumpled, cotton suit, his shock of straw-coloured hair flattened to his brow by the speed of the boat. 

  As the boat raced through a gap made by the police launches, the man looked up at the passengers crowding the rails. His handsome face looked tired, worn, but triumphant. Cupping his hands to his mouth, he shouted excitedly, 'The Mueller family! Professor Carl Mueller!’

The atmosphere in the Mueller’s cabin was electric. 

  ‘He’s said he’s got visas for us to leave the ship!’ gasped Anna, breathless from dashing the news to her parents.

  Carl and Esther looked at each other, a mixture of shock, joy and disbelief. But it was true. A steward, hurrying after Anna, confirmed the good news. They were to take their luggage to the ship’s ladder and disembark. All the Mueller family and Nanny Price too.

  The next few minutes were a blur. Carl, Hans, Nanny and the steward stumbled up the companionway to the boat deck, hauling various brown leather cases. Bringing up the rear behind Esther, Anna and Klaus, two more stewards carried Esther’s trunk. 

 Having climbed the ladder to the ships deck, Freddie looked through the excited crowd. Carl was easy to see, being over six foot and wearing a silver-grey homburg, but the rest of the family were hidden in the milling throng. Anger was rising as the crowd grew, demanding to know why they weren’t allowed to leave too.  Freddie had expected it. He glanced at Ramos, who smoothly slipped his gun from its holster and fired one deafening shot into the air. The effect at such close quarters was immediate. The crowd took a pace back, allowing Carl to shepherd his flock to the ladder where another policeman was waiting to help them down to Lardy’s boat.

  Freddie only glimpsed Esther, tearful and near to panic, as she was jostled through into the arms of the policeman. Out of Freddie’s sight, Anna had wrestled her arm from her father’s grip.

  ‘No!’ he heard her shout angrily. ‘I’m not leaving without the others. It isn’t fair!’

  Carl, occupied with the bemused Klaus, had become separated from his daughter, who was about to become submerged in the crowd.

  ‘Anna!’ he cried.

  Esther’s cry of panic pierced the hubbub. Freddie forced himself into the scrum, grabbed the young girl firmly round the waist and carried her, kicking and screaming, to the top of the ladder where Ramos helped him carry her down the precarious steps. They were all in danger of falling as Anna struck out furiously, catching Freddie full in the face, and knocking Ramos’s cap into the water.

  ‘No, no!’ she cried. ‘We can’t leave them! They’re our friends!’

  Somehow, they were all suddenly in the small swaying boat, the luggage was tumbled in after them and Lardy gunned the craft away from the sheer, black wall of the ship. 

 The family huddled towards the prow in silence, with Carl hugging the sobbing Anna to his chest and holding Esther in an embrace all the way. Freddie sat in the stern with Ramos and Lardy.  No one spoke on the short journey.

Ramos, aware of the danger of the large, excitable crowd gathered at the quay, told Lardy to take the boat through the harbour channel and up the river leading through the Old City. 

As they entered the mouth of the narrow river and the S.S. St Louis disappeared from view behind the dockside warehouses, Anna let out a little cry, ‘Papa!’

 Carl hugged her closer.  ‘Hush, Liebchen,’ he murmured. ‘There was nothing we could do.’

 After Lardy had tied up at the small jetty, Freddie quickly found two taxis. He and Ramos crammed into the front seat of the first, with Anna and Nanny Price in the back.

  ‘Hotel Ingleterre,’ Freddie instructed the driver.

  As the two cabs wound through the narrow shadowed Spanish style streets, that made up the ancient and most beautiful part of Havana, Freddie became aware for the first time that his nose was violently throbbing. Touching it he realised it had bled. He took out a handkerchief and dabbed it gently. The faint red smudge on the white cotton told him the blood had already dried. 

  The ship's klaxon sounded one final echoing blast. Glancing behind Freddie looked straight into the wide dark eyes of Anna, glaring hatred at him from the shadow of the rear seat. 

  ‘You had no right to drag me from the ship!’ she said coldly. ‘I wanted to stay.’

  ‘I understand how you feel –,’ began Freddie, but Ramos, squashed at his side, snapped without turning his head.

  ‘You should be grateful! I would have left you there!’

  Anna was about to respond, but felt Nanny Price’s hand gently squeeze her own. She contented herself with staring hard at the back of Ramos’ bare head, pleased that she’d knocked the man’s hat into the water.

********

  Publication date: December 2022. 

This title will be available on Amazon and on #KindleUnlimited.

 https://books2read.com/u/m0EDKW 

Harry Duffin is an award-winning British screenwriter, who was on the first writing team of the BBC’s ‘Eastenders’ and won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best TV serial for ‘Coronation Street’. 

He was Head of Development at Cloud 9 Screen Entertainment Group, producing seven major television series, including ‘Swiss Family Robinson’ starring Richard ‘John Boy’ Thomas, and ‘Twist in the Tale’, featuring William Shatner. 

He was the co-creator of the UK Channel Five teen-cult drama series ‘The Tribe’, which ran for five series. 

He has written three novels, Chicago May, Birth of the Mall Rats [an intro to the TV series ‘The Tribe’], and Island of Dreams, which will be published in December 2022.

Chicago May is the first book of a two-part series: www.chicagomay.com

  

Social Media Links:

Website:    www.harryduffin.co.uk

Twitter:     https://twitter.com/duffin26 

Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/harry.duffin.5 

LinkedIn:   https://uk.linkedin.com/in/harry-duffin-b7030a47 

Instagram:   https://www.instagram.com/duffinharry/ 

Book Bub:  https://www.bookbub.com/authors/harry-duffin 

Amazon Author Page:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Harry-Duffin/e/B005KR3E74 

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4674467.Harry_Duffin 

The Coffee Pot Blog Tour presents: The Godmother's Secret by Elizabeth St.John

Book Title: The Godmother’s Secret

Author: Elizabeth St.John

Publication Date: 4th October, 2022

Publisher: Falcon Historical

Page Length: 350 pages

Genre: Biographical Historical Fiction / Historical Mystery

Tour Schedule Page:  

The Godmother’s Secret

by Elizabeth St.John

What if you knew what happened to the Princes in the Tower. Would you tell? Or would you forever keep the secret?

November, 1470: Westminster Abbey. Lady Elysabeth Scrope faces a perilous royal duty when ordered into sanctuary with Elizabeth Woodville–witness the birth of Edward IV’s Yorkist son. Margaret Beaufort, Elysabeth’s sister, is desperately seeking a pardon for her exiled son Henry Tudor. Strategically, she coerces Lancastrian Elysabeth to be appointed godmother to Prince Edward, embedding her in the heart of the Plantagenets and uniting them in a destiny of impossible choices and heartbreaking conflict.

Bound by blood and torn by honour, when the king dies and Elysabeth delivers her young godson into the Tower of London to prepare for his coronation, she is engulfed in political turmoil. Within months, the prince and his brother have disappeared, Richard III is declared king, and Margaret conspires with Henry Tudor to invade England and claim the throne. Desperate to protect her godson, Elysabeth battles the intrigue, betrayal and power of the last medieval court, defying her husband and her sister under her godmother’s sacred oath to keep Prince Edward safe.

Were the princes murdered by their uncle, Richard III? Was the rebel Duke of Buckingham to blame? Or did Margaret Beaufort mastermind their disappearance to usher in the Tudor dynasty? Of anyone at the royal court, Elysabeth has the most to lose–and the most to gain–by keeping secret the fate of the Princes in the Tower.     

Inspired by England’s most enduring historical mystery, Elizabeth St.John, best-selling author of The Lydiard Chronicles, blends her own family history with known facts and centuries of speculation to create an intriguing alternative story illuminating the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower. 

This title is on #KindleUnlimited. 

Universal Link: 

Elizabeth St.John spends her time between California, England, and the past. An acclaimed author, historian, and genealogist, she has tracked down family papers and residences from Lydiard Park and Nottingham Castle to Richmond Palace and the Tower of London to inspire her novels. Although the family sold a few country homes along the way (it's hard to keep a good castle going these days), Elizabeth's family still occupy them— in the form of portraits, memoirs, and gardens that carry their legacy. And the occasional ghost. But that's a different story.

Having spent a significant part of her life with her seventeenth-century family while writing The Lydiard Chronicles trilogy and Counterpoint series, Elizabeth St.John is now discovering new family stories with her fifteenth-century namesake Elysabeth St.John Scrope, and her half-sister, Margaret Beaufort.

Website:  Twitter:  Facebook:  LinkedIn:  Instagram: Book Bub: Amazon Author Page: Goodreads: 

The Coffee Pot Blog Tour presents: The Conjuror’s Apprentice: The Tudor Rose, Book 1 by G.J. Williams

Book Title: The Conjuror’s Apprentice

Series: The Tudor Rose (Book 1) 

Author: G.J. Williams

Publication Date: October 6th 2022

Publisher: RedDoor Press

Page Length: 320 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

Tour Schedule: 

The Conjuror’s Apprentice

(The Tudor Rose, Book 1

 G.J. Williams

Born with the ability to hear thoughts and feelings when there is no sound, Margaretta Morgan’s strange gift sees her apprenticed to Doctor John Dee, mathematician, astronomer, and alchemist. Using her secret link with the hidden side and her master’s brilliance, Margaretta faces her first murder mystery. Margaretta and Dee must uncover the evil bound to unravel the court of Bloody Mary. 

The year is 1555. This is a time ruled by fear. What secrets await to be pulled from the water?

The Conjuror’s Apprentice takes real people and true events in 1555, into which G J Williams weaves a tale of murder and intrigue. Appealing to readers of crime and well researched historical fiction alike, this is the first in a series which will follow the life, times, plots and murders of the Tudor Court.

Trigger Warnings:

Descriptions of bodies and the injuries that brought about their death. 

Threat of torture; description of man who has been tortured.

Read an excerpt

Dawn broke on a new June day. Margaretta must have looked terrible. Even Mam offered to stir a pot and Huw kept stepping from foot to foot and looking at her face with concern. Katherine Constable was in her sitting room, picking at an embroidery, tutting at her mistakes. Her face fell when she saw Margaretta’s expression.

 ‘What has happened? You look so tired.’

 ‘They have given orders to torture Doctor Dee.’

 Katherine gave a sharp cry and dropped her linen, the needle making a tiny rattle on the wooden floor. ‘For why?’

 ‘Because torture makes men speak of what they have not done and don’t know, mistress. They are trying to make him confess to a falsity.’

 Katherine’s hand went to her ample bosom. ‘What can we do?’ Then she looked alarmed. ‘Without my husband knowing.’

 ‘I’ll go to the Tower.’

 Katherine gasped and clasped her hands to her throat. ‘But it is a terrible place. They say you never come out alive.’

 ‘That’s not true. Merchants come and go every day. So do men of court. Anyway, I have to help the doctor.’

 Katherine gulped. ‘Do you need more money?’

 ‘Yes…and a petticoat onto which I can sew a secret pocket  to put under my sister’s dress.’

 

 At the Tower, the guard stared at his ledger. ‘I have no note that visitors are to be admitted.’

 ‘But Lord Englefield told me to attend to cousin John and bring him to his senses.’ She copied the voice of Lady Cecil – piety mixed with unquestioned confidence. ‘Are you suggesting I am to be turned away?’

 My, what a difference a dress makes. If I were here in my kitchen brown, you would be kicking my backside out of your door with a stream of abuse to carry me further. But a bit of blue silk, a Spanish hood and a purse of coin, helped by a confident tongue and you are flustering like a chicken facing a fox.

 ‘Er, no. Your name please, my lady?’ The guard scratched at his chin, still staring at his ledger.

 ‘As I said. Cousin to Doctor John Dee.’ She tapped her toe to show impatience. ‘How many times do we need to go around this circus ring?’

 It worked. The gates were opened with a terrible clang of bars being raised. A man was called. ‘Take the lady to prisoner nought nought seven. He’s in the Salt Tower.’ They walked along the cobble path towards the tower, rising grey and terrifying into the blue sky. Above them, soldiers walked the battlements, pikes ready to pierce any escapee. She was walked through a dark door and into a small round room with arched slit windows. The man muttered his apologies for the rank smell. ‘It’s always bad in summer, lady. I think the heat does make the stench of fear grow.’

 She was led up spiral stairs of granite and waited, trembling as the man sorted through a ring of keys. The door was opened and the cell guard gestured her in. ‘We allow only half of an hour a visit, lady.’

 Margaretta turned her eye on the man who was evidently an old soldier from the broken nose and scars across his face. He stank of wine and chicken fat. ‘I will require an hour. See Lord Englefield if you need confirmation.’ She almost laughed at the voice she used.

 But amusement lasted only a second as he snarled back: ‘I don’t give a rat’s arse if Jesus Christ sent you, lady. You have only half of an hour.’

  The cell was dark and dank. One candle burned on a small table in the middle of the cell, casting a low light. Canvas was hanging over the slit windows, blotting out the light of day. An acrid, musty smell rose from the floor. Rats. John Dee was at the far side of the room, on a low cot bed. As she approached, Margaretta could smell mould from the paltry hay mattress.   A cough from behind made her spin round. There was a crouched figure on the floor, face in the shadows. ‘I apologise if I frightened you,’ came a croaked voice.

 She looked back to John Dee, who pointed at the man across the cell. ‘This is Barthelet Green. Detained for heresy. It appears they group prisoners by accusation.’ He shook his head. ‘Cannot stand because of what they have done to him.’

 Margaretta walked towards the man in the corner, picking up the candle. As she approached her stomach lurched. He was broken. Arms hung loose and the legs protruded out at a strange angle. He just about managed to raise his head from a body slumped against the damp wall. He gave a wan smile.

 ‘What did they do to you, sir?’

 ‘The rack, child.’

 As he tried to raise his hand, the door crashed open and the guard shouted, ‘Calling Barthelet Green for interrogation.’ Then a sneering laugh. ‘It’s the scavenger’s daughter today, heretic. Your eyes and ears will be bleeding in an hour.’

 The man moaned. More the moan of a tortured animal than a man, followed by the sound and smell of his bladder giving way in panic. Margaretta turned away to hide her horror. Two men hauled him upright, ignoring the scream. One complained that he would be soaked and then they started to drag their prey towards the door. Another scream and the door slammed shut.

 In the other corner, John Dee began to cry. ‘What if they do the same to me?’

 ‘Come now, doctor, there is no time for weeping.’ Margaretta pulled his shoulders up and looked straight into his eyes. ‘We have to work quickly. Only half an hour.’

 She turned away and pulled up her skirts. From Katherine’s pocketed petticoat she pulled the crystals and the cards. ‘Here. Now let us seek answers.’

 With trembling hands, Dee pointed to the candle. ‘We will need that.’ Then he placed the crystals on the floor, putting the candle between them. Slowly, he opened the box of cards and muttered a prayer in the old language, their language, and raised his eyes to the ceiling as if imploring God, or maybe the gods, to come and give answers. With a deep breath he spread the cards in a wide arc, the picture sides down. ‘Tell me of my enemies,’ he rasped, and started to select the cards.

 One by one he pulled them from the arc, picture side up, until he had created a cross. When five were chosen, he groaned. ‘God help us.’

 ‘What do they tell you, doctor?’

 He pointed to the central card. It depicted a young man, a magician, conjuring with arms open, a double halo above his head, vines growing at his feet, and a wary smile on his face. ‘This is me. It is the card of looking forward, new beginnings, and most of all, hoping for a miracle.’

 He moved to the card to the left. The high priestess. ‘She has the scythe at her feet, pomegranates at her head, the cross of faith at her heart, the tora in her hands. She understands everything and nothing. Intuition and always seeing.’ He looked up at Margaretta. ‘This is you.’

 ‘But that card on the other side of you? The devil?’

 John Dee made a little whimper, then controlled himself and straightened his back. ‘This means entrapment, others having the upper hand, bad faith and bad speaking against truth. Intended evil.’ Dee sighed. ‘This is the current condition.’

 ‘So, look to the card below. What is that?’

 John Dee traced down. ‘The emperor again. A man bent on power. Whoever this depicts is the centre of this.’ He tapped the sheep heads on the throne. ‘Yellow wool.’

 ‘And the lowest card.’

 ‘The hermit. It supports the other cards. This is the keystone in the cross. He is the hidden man, only half seen. He shines a light and yet you cannot see his face. This card often means the final stage of an endeavour.’ John Dee swayed back and looked to Margaretta. ‘The other name for this card is the shepherd and he is the root and foundation of this mess.’

 Margaretta started to pace. ‘The turn-face shepherd again.’ She stopped. ‘I need to go back to Southwark and find that face.’

 John Dee was about to answer when footsteps came from the stairs. Margaretta grabbed the cards and crystal and secreted them in her petticoat just as the door crashed open and the guard yelled, ‘Time up!’

 She nodded and turned to leave, hearing Dee’s whisper of, ‘Help me.’

 Amazon UK:  Waterstones: RedDoor:

After a career as a business psychologist for city firms, G.J. Williams has returned to her first passion – writing tales of murder, mystery and intrigue. Her psychology background melded with a love of medieval history, draws her to the twists and turns of the human mind, subconscious powers and the dark-side of people who want too much. 

She lives between Somerset and London in the UK and is regularly found writing on a train next to a grumpy cat and a bucket of tea.

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The Coffee Pot Blog Tours present: Brushstrokes from the Past by Heidi Eljarbo

Book Title: Brushstrokes from the Past

Series: Soli Hansen Mysteries

Author: Heidi Eljarbo

Publication Date: 20 September 2022

Publisher: self-published

Page Length: 260 pages

Genre: Historical fiction – dual timeline, a bit of mystery and sweet romance

Tour Schedule: 

Brushstrokes from the Past

Soli Hansen Mysteries

Heidi Eljarbo

A Historical Art Mystery

WWII and the mid-seventeenth century are entwined in this fourth dual timeline novel about Nazi art theft, bravery, friendship, and romance.

April 1945. Art historian Soli Hansen and her friend Heddy arrive at an excavation site only to find Soli’s old archeology professor deeply engrossed in an extraordinary find in a marsh. The remains of a man have lain undisturbed for three centuries, but there’s more to this discovery…

As Soli tries to understand who the baroque man was and discovers what he carried in a sealed wooden tube, problems arise. A leak reveals the finds to the notorious Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Walter, and soon, both Nazi elite and the Gestapo are after the treasure.

When Heddy and the professor disappear along with the artwork, Soli and her resistance group must find them before it’s too late.

1641. In Amsterdam, French musketeer Claude Beaulieu has had his portrait done by his close friend and artist Rembrandt van Rijn. When a band of thieves steal the precious painting, Claude and his wife Annarosa Ruber pick up their swords and a few belongings and go after the culprits.

Set in Norway during the tumultuous last days of the second world war, as well as the peak of the glorious baroque art period, these two stories are a must for readers who love historical fiction with adventure, suspense, and true love that conquers all.

Perfect for fans of Kate Morton, Lucinda Riley, Kathleen McGurl, Rhys Bowen, and Katherine Neville.

Available on #KindleUnlimited 

Universal Link: 

Heidi Eljarbo is the bestselling author of historical fiction and mysteries filled with courageous and good characters that are easy to love and others you don't want to go near.

Heidi grew up in a home filled with books and artwork and she never truly imagined she would do anything other than write and paint. She studied art, languages, and history, all of which have come in handy when working as an author, magazine journalist, and painter.

After living in Canada, six US states, Japan, Switzerland, and Austria, Heidi now calls Norway home. She and her husband have a total of nine children, thirteen grandchildren—so far—in addition to a bouncy Wheaten Terrier.

Their favorite retreat is a mountain cabin, where they hike in the summertime and ski the vast, white terrain during winter.

Heidi’s favorites are family, God’s beautiful nature, and the word whimsical.

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