Robert J. Harris - Artie Conan Doyle and the Scarlet Phantom - Book Review - Mr. Ripley's Enchanted Books

Here we are, the sleuths are back again with the third brilliant book in The Artie Conan Doyle Mysteries. The Scarlet Phantom is the work of Scottish writer, Robert J. Harris, and features the young amateur detectives of Artie Conan Doyle (Boy Detective) and Edward Hamilton (Stalwart Companion). The book has already been published (October) by Floris Books (a small independent children's publisher in Edinburgh).  

It's time to investigate the criminal mind with another unusual and thrilling mystery to ponder over. I really love this series; it's one of my personal favorites as it reminds me of the books I used to read when I was a young person. It has the same DNA profile as the books I read and loved at that time such as The Hardy Boy Stories which were full of vivid action and great moments. It also has great settings and characters similar to The Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators books. Around every corner, there's suspense and deadly peril. These books made me an avid reader as they expanded my imagination and created a great appetite for new and exciting books. 

Wandering around the back streets of Edinburgh, August 1873, and something is afoot once again. A mystery is sweeping across the murky Scottish streets leaving the public fearing for their lives. Priceless jewels are being stolen by an invisible thief who walks through walls and disappears at will. All of which is bafflingly the local police force. However, the Scarlett Phantom is just about to pull off the biggest robbery in history. Can the greatest detective (not Sherlock Holmes) solve the puzzle before he or she gets away? Or will a strange paranormal investigator, who claims he can capture this phantom burglar, get there before them? You'll have to read the book to find out. 

In this story, we are introduced to a new female character, Peril Abernetly (Girl Scientist), to aid the detective team in finding out the answers to this fiendish plot. This character adds another interesting dimension to the story. She introduces a scientific approach to the inner-thought processes and dynamics of the sleuthing trio. In contrast, there is also Edward who is always hungry and has food about his person but is not always hungry for adventure. He especially fears danger and has to be persuaded by his best friend (Artie Doyle) to follow him in his thirst for solving inexplicable crimes.  

Like all the other books in this series, there is a fantastic plot full of imagination, which has been executed particularly well. It has twists and turns which leave many possibles alternatives to develop and explore. There are many quirky details included which provide a great reading experience. The time and gothic setting have a wide and fantastic appeal. Historically, it makes the story very interesting and atmospheric.

This is another fantastic book aimed at the younger reader. It will feed their imagination and set them off on an amazing fantasy adventure. As the story comes to a climatic and turbulent end, it will leave them feeling content. It's a book that is definitely worth tracking down. You never know, it may even inspire new avid readers to be born. So are you ready to solve the clues and follow in the footsteps of the characters? If so, then you definitely need to read this book.

Ross MacKenzie - The Elsewhere Emporium - Book Review (Kelpies) Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

Step this way into the land of fantasy with the anticipated sequel to The Nowhere Emporium. This first book was published way back in 2015 and subsequently scooped up the Blue Peter Book Award as well as gaining some fantastic reviews. So what better way to introduce the new sequel, The Elsewhere Emporium, which sports a very similar book cover. I can hear you all CRY, when is this book PUBLISHED? Well, the book will be published on the 13th September 2018 by Floris Books of Edinburgh. Apologies for the early review, but I just couldn't wait to read it! 

Ross MacKenzie is back again with a BOOM. Before I turned the first page the anticipation was truly growing. I remember reading his first book and absolutely loving every moment of it. Therefore, I was hoping that this book would live up to my very high expectations. What do you think, did it?

Welcome one and all to the CARNIVAL of WONDERS.  As you turn the very first page you arrive in Mayfair (London) in 1967, where everything looks ordinary. However, you would be very wrong to think that as you suddenly find yourself walking the tightrope of mystery and fantasy. Each page draws you into a story full of magic and illusion which transports the reader to a place of pure joy and escapism. 

Everything I loved in the first book I found in this story as well. However, the author has gone one better by introducing a new element. A problem-solving mystery to unravel. The book flits between two brilliant narratives of present-day Keswick and a bygone era in Mayfair, London. Without spoiling the story for you and giving too much away, the plot threads really pull together and contort like elastic bands as they weave the storyline back and forth to keep the reader on their fantasy toes. 

Returning to the emporium is like reuniting with a long-lost friend. Each room presented magical delights full of mystery and majesty. It was absolutely thrilling to be back exploring all of the hidden wonders producing pure excitement and anticipation; like the unwrapping of presents on Christmas Day. The feeling you get from reading this book is absolute exhilaration and five star entertainment. 

The search for the lost emporium will capture your heart. However, be aware as the villain will steal your soul and slowly extract your shadow. You can not help but feel the brooding and dark side seep through your bones as the dangerous force attacks the emporium. It gives a scary punch to the adventure and intensifies the danger within. However, with the opportunity to ride on a magic carpet, visit magical bookshops and deserted islands as well as meet a host of magicians and a scary witch, what more could you possibly want?

This is easily one of the best books that I have read this year. I would have just loved for it to be 100+ pages longer so that I could have continued living and breathing in this wonderful place. It needed to permeate and ferment longer within my fantasy head, as I truly devoured this book in just a few hours. It's another showmanship of storytelling that will delight all readers. Now is a fantastic opportunity to read the first book before the sequel is published in September. What are you waiting for?

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Headline News Post One

ADULT READ TO MENTION.... Award-winning author Philip Murdstone is in trouble. His star has waned. The world is leaving him behind. His agent, the beautiful and ruthless Minerva Cinch, convinces him that his only hope is to write a sword-and-sorcery blockbuster. Unfortunately, Philip - allergic to the faintest trace of Tolkien - is utterly unsuited to the task. In a dark hour, a dwarfish stranger comes to his rescue. But the deal he makes with Pocket Wellfair turns out to have Faustian consequences. The Murdstone Trilogy is a richly black comedy from an author described by one American critic as 'the best writer you've probably never heard of'.

http://www.davidficklingbooks.com/NewsStory.php?item=205

Scholastic gets Goosebumps

Scholastic is reissuing 21 Goosebumps titles (March and May, all £4.99) and R L Stine’s autobiography (It Came From Ohio: My Life as a Writer, May, £4.99) next year, in advance of the release of the first Goosebumps film in August 2015.

Goosebumps is the second- bestselling series of all time globally, selling over 350 million books across 32 languages. It is surpassed only by Harry Potter. The 2015 publications will be the first reissue of the series for a decade. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/scholastic-gets-goosebumps

Puffin Acquires Bestselling (non) Picture Book

Published just three weeks ago in the US, quickly claiming the top spot on the New York Times Bestseller list and shooting straight to no.1 across all book categories on Amazon.com, THE BOOK WITH NO PICTURES by award-winning US actor and comedian B.J. Novak is the most talked about (non) picture book in recent years. http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/56622

Recently arrived on a Glasgow council estate, Logan is grateful to have made any friends at all. But will his best friend Baz be there when he really needs him? A stand-out teen thriller with a sensational twist.

Floris Book News: Mother and Son To Publish With Same Indie Imprint

Award-winning teen author Cathy MacPhail and her son David will both publish

in the Kelpies imprint with Floris Books in 2015.

Independent Edinburgh publisher Floris Books today announce that 2015 will see the publication of separate books by a mother and son: award-winning teen author Cathy MacPhail and her son David MacPhail. The books will come out in Floris’s Kelpies range of children’s books.  http://www.florisbooks.co.uk/press/Floris-MacphailPR.pdf

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Book: Exclusive Cover/ Chapter Reveal - The Nowhere Emporium by Ross MacKenzie

It's always exciting and a privilege to be able show off a book cover or a chapter sample of a book for the first time. In this case it is an absolute corker with an eye catching book cover and an explosively imaginative storyline. Unfortunately, Floris Books will not be publishing this book until March 2015. I'm really SORRY to be teasing you now with this book cover image and chapter preview, but I hope you enjoy the quick look into what is still to come and perhaps put it on your wish list for next year. Thank you Kelpies for asking me to share this with everybody - it really is an honour. 

Chapter 6: A bargain with Lucien Silver

 “I am offering you the chance of a lifetime, my boy – the chance of a hundred lifetimes. Come with me. Learn about the Emporium. Prove that I was right to interfere. See the world in a way nobody else can. What do you say?”

Daniel said nothing. He stared out of the Emporium’s windows. Glasgow was hidden beneath a veil of thick swirling fog.

“You need persuasion,” said Mr Silver. “Seeing is believing, or so they say.”

He strode towards the shop door, reaching for an elaborate metal instrument on the wall. To Daniel, it looked like a complicated cross between a clock and a compass. There were many dials, and rings of numbers set within smaller rings. Mr Silver began to manipulate the hands of the instrument. When he was satisfied, he spun and headed for the fire, scooping a handful of coal from a bucket on the floor. He tossed the coal into the fire. There was a great roar, and the flames became so bright Daniel shielded his eyes. For the briefest moment, the flames burned a deep red, and the fire exploded, sending a plume of soot billowing into the store.

As Daniel coughed the soot from his lungs, a bar of bright sunlight began to burn through the smoke. When the soot had settled, Mr Silver stood by the door of the Emporium and opened it with a flourish.

“See for yourself,” he said.

Daniel stepped to the doorway and felt a warm breeze on his face. He had been expecting, of course, to look out onto a Glasgow street; to see shoppers bustling past, weighed down with bags.

But that is not what he saw.

He inched out of the door, onto a wide walkway. The air was warm, the sky awash with deep reds and purples. Beyond the walkway, where a road should surely have been, there was a canal lined with tall narrow buildings, all columns and spires and colourful shutters.

“What happened to Glasgow?” Daniel said, inching back into the Emporium as a passing old woman, laden with a heavy basket, stopped and peered suspiciously at him.

Mr Silver shut the door and made sure the sign in the window read CLOSED.

“We left,” he said, as though this was the most regular occurrence in the world. “That’s Venice. We’re in Venice now.” He glanced at the instrument on the wall. “The year is 1854. July, I believe.”

Daniel craned his neck to get a better view from the window. He wiped the glass, which was foggy from his breath. He tried to find some words.

“It’s impossible!”

“Yet here we are,” said Mr Silver.

Daniel felt the need to sit down. “So we’re ... we’re ... we’ve just ... this is ... really?”

“Indeed,” said Silver.

“But. I mean. How? Just … how?” Daniel’s eyes widened.

“It’s magic, isn’t it? It has to be! How else can we have just come from a caravan in a meadow that’s inside a room? There’s no other way for all of this to be real, to be happening.”

Mr Silver smiled. “One thing at a time, Mr Holmes. One thing at a time.”

“And you want me to come with you? All around the world?”

A pause.

Daniel narrowed his eyes. “What’s the catch?”

“The catch, Daniel Holmes, is that you will work to earn your place here. What I am offering is not a holiday. It is an opportunity. A challenge. You must show me I was correct to bring you here, that you are, as I suspect, special. If you succeed in that, then the Emporium will become your home.”

“And what happens if I don’t come up to scratch?” said Daniel. “You sack me? Leave me somewhere halfway round the world a hundred years before I was born?”

“I will do no such thing,” said Mr Silver. “If you do not belong in the Emporium, you will simply be returned to your own time. Your old life.” He offered a hand. “So, do we have a bargain?”

Daniel organised the facts in his mind: he was an orphan leading a miserable life; he didn’t have any friends; a gang of bullies had made it their mission to ensure his life was as uncomfortable as possible; he was lost.

And now he’d been invited to escape all of that and travel through time in a magical shop, with a man he suspected was either a genius or a lunatic – or maybe both. He had the opportunity to be someone else, even if it was just for a while. And if he was someone else, maybe he wouldn’t feel so alone.

Twitter: @RossAuthor 
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