Black Robe of Flanders Carnival of Mysteries Anthology
Mystery, Fantasy, LGBTQ Romance, Fantasy Romance
Independent
Oct 18, 2023
Kindle
238
Amazon
It’s the summer of 1936. Europe is at peace. Prosperity is beginning to return after the long, hungry years of the Great Depression, and new leaders have brought fresh ideas and what might actually be hope to country after country. People have enough money to spend at the shops, the cafes, even the shabby little kermesse that goes from town to town.
Life is good again, or will be soon….
Valentine Ford is a foreign correspondent who’s been on the Continent for almost a decade. He sees the warning signs of trouble to come, the cracks beginning to form in the happy facade, but no one will listen….
Alexander Skavadale is a covert agent who’s been on the job since the Great War. He’s heard rumors of trouble brewing, of rare artifacts disappearing to further a diabolical plan that no one can quite explain….
Two men from different worlds.
Two men with a common goal.
Two men facing an enemy they cannot imagine, forced to work together to stop a plot that could seal the fate of Europe, and the world, for generations to come.
And might just seal their fate as well.
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
Another amazing addition to the multi-author series Carnival of Mysteries. Each story is written by a different author, and they are all unique and different. The one thing each story has in common is a rendezvous with the Carnival of Mysteries.
1936 a time in history that led to the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust. It was a time when German Jews were in danger and any attempt to find a safe harbor were non-existent. It was because of the trouble brewing in Europe that Valentine Ford, a foreign correspondent wrote a book and is touring attempting to educate people on what is happening and trying to get them to do what they can to open the minds and hearts of countries that have closed their borders to Jews. At the end of his last lecture, he is whisked away to a meeting with his mother and the Council for the Promotion of Unusual Talents. This meeting will lead to a mission that will be both dangerous and life changing.
Alexander Skavadale is a covert agent with Her Majesties Secret Intelligence sent to Belgium to retrieve a package that is connected to the Talent only the enemy was waiting. The package was taken and the man who delivered it was murdered. Alex had to use his Talent making himself almost invisible and able to shift to another location. The mission was a failure, but it was just the beginning, because the robe and other missing artifacts could lead to a dark future.
All the missing artifacts are related to the Talent and are a huge importance to the Nazi Regime, so that means it is important to find the artifacts and stop whatever Hitler has in the works. That is what brings Alex to the Council for the Talent and to enlist Val to the cause. The man responsible for the missing artifacts and the deaths is Gunther Pohl who was Val’s lover in Oxford. Val loved Gunther who he knew as George and who he insists could not be involved with the Nazi’s. Val and George were together for two years and Val always believed they would be together for life until George disappeared without a word.
Val finds himself on a mission he is unprepared for, he is a correspondent not a spy, but the robe must be found, and Val is familiar with Gunther, his habits and likes and dislikes so Val is an asset to staying one step ahead of Gunther. Val still believes in him and still loves him, but he is going to get a rude awakening when the real Gunther comes to light. The reason for the artifacts being stolen and what their main purpose is makes finding them imperative.
While Val and Alex try to stay one step ahead of Gunther and his partner, they discover the reason for the artifacts, and it is dangerous and scary. Val has Talent but has refused to use it and had decided to live in a non-Talent world but with the world at unrest he may have no choice.
It would take a visit to the Carnival of Mysteries to give Val and Alex the help they would need even though they have no idea what that help is. As Alex and Val become closer and love may be on the horizon and well as war there is still a mission that would take the two of them to complete.
This story touches on a dark time in history, a time where the unbelievable happened but is also a story of love and promise.
LGBT/ROMANCE/FANTASY/MYSTERY
