“The girl with the gun crouched waiting. The dark shape hung over the belt of poplars, then banked, swooping out across the salt marsh”
A dark and epic fantasy novel about the secrets we keep, the lies we need to believe and the things that are truly worth fighting for
TRUE HONOUR IS ENDLESS.
1935. Norfolk. War is looming in Great Britain and the sprawling country estate of Alderberen Hall is shadowed by suspicion and paranoia. Alderberen’s newest resident, Delphine Venner, is determined to uncover the secrets of the Hall’s elite society, which has taken in her gullible mother and unstable father.
As she explores the house and discovers the secret network of hidden passages that thread through the estate, Delphine unearths a world more dark and threatening than she ever imagined. With the help of head gamekeeper Mr Garforth, Delphine must learn the bloody lessons of war and find the soldier within herself in time to battle the deadly forces amassing in the woods …
“Gorgeously gripping … in keeping with the best fantasy fiction, this novel is about a great deal more than creeping monsters and steampunk sensibilities”
guardian
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“An astonishing imaginative feat”
Nathan Filer
”Astutely brilliant. It is rare to find such a riveting, fantastical, adventure matched by such poetic flair. A rich, gripping delight”
Matt Haig
”Fabulously evocative, dark and fun: Buchan meets Edgar Wallace, H.P. Lovecraft and Enid Blyton”
Helen Macdonald
“A mysterious, haunting story that builds to a thrilling climax. Part Mervyn Peake, part Aleister Crowley, it features a truly original heroine in the form of Delphine, the shotgun toting schoolgirl. Tim Clare writes with a poet’s eye and a thriller writer’s pace that held me spellbound till the last page”
Chris Riddell
Tim Clare is a writer, poet and musician. He won Best Biography/Memoir at the East Anglian Book Awards for his first book, We Can’t All Be Astronauts, while his fiction debut, The Honours, was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. His second novel, The Ice House, was published in 2019. He has performed his work at festivals and clubs across the world, on BBC TV and radio. Tim has also written for the Guardian, The Times, the Independent and the Big Issue, and presents the fiction writing podcast Death Of 1,000 Cuts.
@timclarepoet | timclarepoet.co.uk