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Boodle’s Club
Boodle’s is a private members’ gentlemen’s club founded in 1762 by the Earl of Shelburne, who later went on to become Prime Minister. The club was named after its austere headwaiter, Edward Boodle. It occupies a special place in the pantheon of British gentlemen’s clubs, and many of the most established are still in the third of a square mile known as St James’s. The area boasts a network of hidden passages, alleyways and courtyards to explore.
Boodle’s is the second oldest gentlemen’s club in the world, with the neighbouring White’s gentleman’s club being the oldest.
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Hunterian Museum
Some exhibits of the Hunterian Museum collection wouldn’t look out of place on the set of a Hollywood horror film. The home of an unrivalled collection of human anatomical and pathological specimens, historic surgical and dental instruments, paintings, drawings, and sculpture, the collection was the lifework of surgeon and anatomist John Hunter (1728-1793). Part of the Royal College of Surgeons since 1813, the Hunterian Museum is not for the faint-hearted, as you’ll see body parts preserved in jars, but it is also a fascinating place and full of surprises.
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Fountain Court
Fountain Court is a peaceful courtyard oasis hidden way from the hustle and bustle of London. It provides a great spot to rest weary bones after a long day exploring the city. A small fountain has been here for around three hundred years, but the surrounding gardens have a much older history, possibly dating back to the late 12th century, when the Knights Templar established themselves in the area. Renowned for the quality of their roses, the gardens provided Shakespeare with the setting for the dispute scene in Henry VI, Part 1 that heralded the War of the Roses.
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Ye Olde Mitre Tavern
Ye Olde Mitre (a mitre is a bishop’s hat) is located near Hatton Garden (the centre of the capital’s gemstone industry) and is hidden off a back alley to Ely Court. This area was the London residence to the Ely Bishops from 1290 to 1772 (Ely being a part of Cambridgeshire). The Ely Bishops were very influential and often seen as a seat of great power. In 1546, Bishop Goodrich had the tavern built for his London servants, and it has been there ever since.
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Scotland Yard’s Crime Museum
Known as the ‘Black Museum,’ Scotland Yard’s Crime Museum contains a fascinating array of grisly exhibits. Access to the public is limited, but the museum boasts a fine display of Ripper artefacts (including the handwritten notes of the chief detective in the case), nooses, weapons and death masks.
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Constantine the Great (272 – 337)
Constantine the Great was Roman Emperor from AD 306 to 337. He is an important figure in the history of Christianity and is cited as the first emperor to officially embrace the religion. He was responsible for many celebrated building projects, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (on the purported site of Jesus’s tomb) and Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The medieval church upheld him as a model of faithfulness, but Constantine was no saint, as he was responsible for the murder of his wife and son.
Constantine’s father was Flavius Valerius Constantius, a Roman army officer who in AD 293 became Caesar, or the deputy emperor to the Western Empire. His mother Helena, Flavius’s consort, had a profound influence on his life and later on the development of the Christian church.
In 305, his father Constantius was raised to the rank of Augustus, or senior Western Emperor, and Constantine was recalled west to Britannia to join his father’s side in the campaigns against the Picts. When his father died a year later, Constantine was claimed emperor by the army at Eboracum (modern-day York).
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St Helena (246-50? – 327-30?)
St Helena was the mother of the emperor Constantine the Great. Through her rediscovery and endorsement of early Christian historical sites and her pervasive influence on her son, Helena had a profound effect on the early evolution of the Christian church.
It is thought that Helena’s conversion to Christianity came after her son’s spiritual experience at the battle of Milvian Bridge in AD 312. In the following years, she was given access to the resources of the treasury to locate relics of the Judeo-Christian religion and set out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, no mean feat for a woman in her late seventies. Helena left Jerusalem in AD 327, bringing parts of the True Cross and other holy relics back to Rome. It is likely that she died in AD 330 with Constantine at her side. Her skull can be seen on display in the Cathedral of Trier in Germany.
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Tyrian Shekel
At least half a century before the birth of Christ, the silver shekels produced in the Phoenician city of Tyre had become the predominant coin in the Judaeo-Phoenician region. First instituted by Moses (described in Exodus 30:11-16), every Jewish man 20 years and over was expected to pay a tax for the upkeep of the Temple. The Jewish Talmud required the tax to be paid with a coin of high purity silver, and so Tyrian shekels (renowned for their high silver content) became the only accepted coin for the payment of the tax.
When Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver (described in Matthew 26:14-15), it was almost certainly with Tyrian shekels taken from the Temple Treasury.
THE LOGOS CODE
The Most Dangerous Weapon is the Truth.
Coming Soon
Thanks for joining Vincent Blake in The Devil’s Architect. He returns in The Logos Code.
When a prominent Freemason is gruesomely murdered, Vincent Blake - London’s leading stolen-art investigator - is called in to investigate. The events surrounding the killing are bizarre and shocking. The closer Blake gets to discovering the truth behind the murder, the more sinister his search becomes. Events soon spiral out of control, and he is drawn into the frontline of a secret holy war.
Pitted against a chilling adversary, haunted by the ghosts of his past, and driven to find the truth, Blake is thrust headfirst into a vortex of deception, stolen treasure, Templar codes, sacred geometry and forbidden knowledge. Gradually, he realises that the knowledge he is hunting for conceals an even greater secret—one so profound, it could trigger events foretold in the book of Revelations.
Join Blake in a life-and-death race across London as he follows a trail of cryptic clues left centuries ago by the founding members of London’s Royal Society. Blake’s greatest discovery will become the world’s greatest threat, as the future of all things hangs in the balance between heaven and hell.
THE HISTORY OF THINGS TO COME
The mind of a genius can hold the darkest of secrets.
A Bosnian gangster is gunned down in a packed London restaurant. In his possession is a notebook once belonging to Isaac Newton. This is just the latest in a series of shocking crimes connected to objects once belonging to the famous scientist. The police are stumped and the pressure for an arrest is mounting.
Enter Vincent Blake, London's leading stolen-art investigator. As Blake sets out to solve the case, a series of devastating events threaten to destroy everything he holds dear. Broken but undeterred, he comes upon a shocking discovery: within the coded pages of a mysterious crimson book, annotated in Newton’s own handwriting, is an explosive revelation. Possessing this secret knowledge turns Blake into a marked man.
Caught in the crosshairs of two sadistic hitmen, Blake is propelled into a breathtaking race through London and its dark historical secrets.
With time running out, will Blake solve Newton’s deadly puzzle before the world is plunged into a catastrophe of biblical proportions?
GET YOUR COPY OF ‘THE HISTORY OF THINGS TO COME’
Bibliography
The following works particularly inspired me during the writing of this book:
Ackroyd, Peter, 2001, London: The Biography (Vintage).
Ackroyd, Peter, 1990, Hawksmoor (Abacus).
Baguio, Matt, 2010, The Rite (Simon & Schuster UK)
Beresiner, Yasha, 2006, The City of London: A Masonic Guide (Lewis Masonic).
Coverley, Merlin, 2008, Occult London (Pocket Essentials).
De la Ruffiniere Du Prey, 2003, Hawksmoor’s London Churches (The University of Chicago Press).
Duncan, Andrew, 2009, Secret London (New Holland).
Gilbert, Adrian, 2003, The New Jerusalem. Rebuilding London: The Great Fire, Christopher Wren and the Royal Society (Corgi).
Gordon, E.O., 1985, Prehistoric London (Covenant Media Productions)
Guard, Richard, 2014, Lost London (Michael O’Mara Books).
Hague, John, 2013, Four Blood Moons (Worthy Publishing)
Hart, Vaughan, 2007, Nicholas Hawksmoor (Yale University Press).
Hebborn, Eric, 1991, Drawn to Trouble: The Forging of an Artist (Mainstream).
Hollis, Leo, 2009, The Phoenix: St Paul’s Cathedral and the Men Who Made Modern London (Phoenix).
Howard, Rachel & Nash, Bill, 2009, Secret London: An Unusual Guide (Jonglez)
Jardine, Lisa, 2002, On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Career of Sir Christopher Wren (HarperCollins).
Jennings, Humphrey, 2012, Pandaemonium, 1660-1886 (Icon Books)
Johnston, Author, 1965, Francis Bacon (B. T. Bratsford Ltd)
Long, David, 2007, Tunnels, Towers & Temples: London’s 100 Strangest Places (History Press).
Pennick, Nigel, 2012, Sacred Architecture of London (Aeon Books).
Robinson, John L., 1989, Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry (M. Evans).
Sinclair, Iain, 1998, Lud Heat and Suicide Bridge (Granta Books)
Winn, Christopher, 2007, I Never Knew That About London (Ebury Press).
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And finally, a number of the biblical quotations referenced in this novel are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, 1996, (Zondervan) and from The Authorized (King James) Version, reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my readers and community at www.duncansimpsonauthor.com and also to my friends on Facebook and Twitter.
Thanks to my production team: Amy Butcher of the Book Butchers for copy-editing and proofreading; Juan Padron for cover design; and Jake Muelle at Creativindie for interior print design.
As always, my biggest thank you goes out to Katie, my master editor. I am constantly in awe of her love, patience and keen eye. Thank you for allowing me to dream and for riding shotgun on the journey. She is the brightest star in my sky.
Team Blake
A big thank you to the committed and loyal readers that make up ‘Team Blake’. I am especially indebted to the following for their help, all above and beyond the call of duty:
* * *
RoseMary Griffith, Lynne Jones, Salvatore Carbone, Paul Turner-Smithson, Rise St Arno, Carol Oakley, Sharon K McQueary, Andrew J Norley, Lynn Osborne, Tina Lunsford, Mats Tage Axelsson, Carla Blanck, Randall Krzak, Debra Belmudes, Jackie Halle, Harry Kanth, Ward Donoho, Sheelagh Rogers, Rebecca Partington, Robert Young, Jane Parsons and Lee Button.
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by Duncan Simpson.
Published by Whitefort Publishing.
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ®Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
Every effort has been made to obtain permission for the material quoted. If any required acknowledgements have been omitted, or any rights overlooked, it is unintentional. Please notify the publishers of any omission, and it will be rectified in future editions.
First Whitefort Publishing edition published in 2017.
ISBN: 978-0-9932063-6-8
Printed in the United Kingdom.
Edited by Katie Simpson & Amy Butcher.
Cover design by Juan Padron.
This book is a work of fiction. The modern-day characters, incidents and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons is fictionalised or coincidental.
ISBN: 978-0-9932063-6-8
About the Author
Duncan Simpson spent his childhood in Cornwall, England. As a teenager he gained experience in a variety of jobs, from working in a mine to doing shifts as a security guard in an American airport. After graduating from the University of Leeds with a physics degree, he spent a year backpacking around the world. On returning to the UK, he embarked on a successful career in business. Along the way, he became the finance director for a technology company and a partner in a leading management consultancy firm.
The Dark Horizon Trilogy was born out of Duncan’s lifelong fascination with the relationship between science and religion. A keen student of the history of London, he loves exploring the ancient stories and myths surrounding the city. When he's not writing or consulting, you'll find him playing guitar in a rock band, running by the Thames, or drinking tea with his wife and three children in their home in Berkshire, England. He can be reached through his website at www.duncansimpsonauthor.com
Get in contact:
@dsimpsonauthor
duncansimpsonauthor
www.duncansimpsonauthor.com
[email protected]
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It would be awesome if you could spend just five minutes leaving a review (it can be as short as you like) on the book’s Amazon and Goodreads pages.
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Duncan
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DARK HORIZON STARTER LIBRARY
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Building a relationship with my readers is the very best thing about writing. I occasionally send out newsletters with details of new releases, special offers and other exclusive material relating to the Vincent Blake thriller series. If you would like to be part of my readers group just sign up at:
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* * *
1. The History of Things to Come (e-book)
Book One of The Dark Horizon Trilogy
The mind of a genius can hold the darkest of secrets.
A Bosnian gangster is gunned down in a packed London restaurant. In his possession is a notebook once belonging to Isaac Newton. This is just the latest in a series of shocking crimes connected to objects once belonging to the famous scientist. Naturally, it’s a case for Vincent Blake, London’s leading stolen art investigator.
2. Secrets From The Dark Horizon (e-book)
A Reader’s Companion Guide to the Dark Horizon Trilogy
Discover where the truth ends … and the legend begins.
Designed as a pocket reference book, Secrets from the Dark Horizon brings alive the legends, locations, facts, and background material
to the series. Jam-packed with fascinating research and chock full of informational tidbits, the guide opens a window on 3,000 years of history. With this book in hand, you will follow Vincent Blake in his breath-taking race through London and its dark historical secrets
Plus Exclusive VIP Bonus (pdf)
The highly confidential security dossier on Vincent Blake.
I hope you love them.
* * *
Duncan
London
The Devil’s Architect: Book Two of the Dark Horizon Trilogy Page 26