Andrew Caldecott

'Intricate and crisp, witty and solemn: a book with special and dangerous properties,' Hilary Mantel 'Baroque, Byzantine and beautiful - not to mention bold' M.R. Carey Rotherweird is twisted, arcane murder-mystery with shades of Deborah Harkness, Hope Mirrlees, Ben Aaronovitch, Mervyn Peake and Edward Gorey at their disturbing best. The town of Rotherweird stands alone - there are no guidebooks, despite the fascinating and diverse architectural styles cramming the narrow streets, the avant garde science and offbeat customs. Cast adrift from the rest of England by Elizabeth I, Rotherweird's independence is subject to one disturbing condition: nobody, but nobody, studies the town or its history. For beneath the enchanting surface lurks a secret so dark that it must never be rediscovered, still less reused. But secrets have a way of leaking out. Two inquisitive outsiders have arrived: Jonah Oblong, to teach modern history at Rotherweird School (nothing local and nothing before 1800), and the sinister billionaire Sir Veronal Slickstone, who has somehow got permission to renovate the town's long-derelict Manor House.Slickstone and Oblong, though driven by conflicting motives, both strive to connect past and present, until they and their allies are drawn into a race against time - and each other. The consequences will be lethal and apocalyptic. Welcome to Rotherweird!

WELCOME BACK TO ROTHERWEIRD For four hundred years, the town of Rotherweird has stood alone, made independent from the rest of England to protect a deadly secret. But someone is playing a very long game. An intricate plot, centuries in the making, is on the move. Everything points to one objective - the resurrection of Rotherweird's dark Elizabethan past - and to one date: the Winter Equinox. Wynter is coming . . .

From Andrew Caldecott, the author of the Rotherweird trilogy, comes a dark, enigmatic, compelling new adventure: think Alice in Wonderland meets Station Eleven, played out in places where paintings come to life. The world is on the brink of utter destruction. Despite the climate activists' best efforts, the atmosphere has turned toxic, destroying plant life, animals, and most of humanity too. The few survivors live in domes protected from the lethal smog, serving Tempestas and Genrich, the world's last two great companies. They both have plans for mankind's future, but their visions are very different - and an uneasy collaboration between them is about to end, with desperate consequences. But not everyone is bound to the companies: far from these centres of power stands the Museum Dome, where persons unknown have assembled mankind's finest paintings and artefacts. Fogg, the curator, thinks he must be the last man left alive, for in the three years he's been there, he's not had a single visitor, and his only company is AIPT, his automated physical trainer, who's very good when it comes to hamstrings and push-ups, but rubbish at actual conversation. Then a single mysterious pill - a momenticon - appears in the Museum, proving he's not alone after all. Before Fogg knows what's hit him, he is embroiled in a desperate fight against time and the rival forces which threaten to overwhelm all that remains.