Mike Shevdon

No-one helps divorced, world-weary Niall Petersen when he has a heart attack on the London Underground in the middle of rush-hour. Self absorbed, late-running commuters stream by, muttering about the pernicious influence of drink and drugs so that his dying thoughts are for them. Bastards.

That isn’t the end, though. It’s the beginning.

He is revived by a sharp-eyed old lady who calls herself Blackbird and tells him that she has called him back to life to prevent one of the Untainted, a creature from a parallel world, from possessing his newly dead corpse. She welcomes him back into the world with the cold solace that the creature will return to kill both him and his fourteen year-old daughter because they both carry the genes of the Feyre, a race far older than mankind who possess chilling and insidious power. Niall greets this news with frank incredulity until Blackbird demonstrates that even she is not what she seems. Far older than she looks, she can change her appearance to become both more attractive and more dangerous than Niall ever imagined.

“Mike Shevdon strikes sparks from the flinty core of English folklore as a hero every reader can relate to finds he’s part of an incredible and scarily believable parallel realm. If you’ve been thinking urban fantasy has nothing fresh to offer, think again.” – Juliet E McKenna

Niall and Blackbird uncover the cold-war being waged by the Courts of the Feyre against the exiled Untainted and discover the secret ritual embedded in the eight hundred year-old Ceremony of the Quit Rents. They find the purpose of the two knives, one blunt and one sharp, and the true reason for the ceremony.

Together, they find the flaw in the heart of the ritual with only days to go before it must be performed again in order to maintain the barrier that keeps the Untainted from our world. One of the two knives is broken and they must have the cold iron re-forged before the barrier between our world and the world of the Untainted falls forever. They must discover the purpose of the six horse-shoes and the sixty-one nails and find the hidden anvil.

“SIXTY-ONE NAILS is NEVERWHERE for the next generation. The pacing is spot-on, the characters engaging, and the world fits together beautifully to create a London that ought to be. I stayed up too late finishing it.” – C E Murphy

On a journey that takes them from deep beneath the rainy streets of London to the winding lanes of Shropshire, Blackbird becomes Niall’s mentor, friend and then lover as each learns to overcome the barriers they have built around themselves though neither of them can know that their newly formed relationship will be tested in a trial by ordeal with the re-forging of the knife as the prize.

If they fail the trial then the Untainted will return to teach humanity the meaning of power, but if they succeed, will the Council of the Seven Courts show its gratitude for their service, or will it take steps to keep the secrets that have preserved its power for millennia?