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Blood, roses, and things that go bump in the night--everything that makes reading worthwhile. Lillian Stewart Carl writes mystery, suspense, romance, fantasy, science fiction — all the good stuff, in other words, heavily seasoned with history and myth, music and magic.
About LillianClick on the leaf to learn more about Lillian.

Lillian at Callanish
Around the circle of time:  
Lillian at Callanish stone
circle in the Scottish
Hebrides

Her novels have been compared to the classic works of Daphne du Maurier, Mary Renault, Mary Stewart (no relation), Barbara Michaels/ Elizabeth Peters, and Tolkien's colleague, Charles Williams--except Lillian's novels take place squarely in the twenty-first century...

...where the past lingers on into the present, especially in the British Isles, Lillian's home away from home.

BooksClick on the leaf for more of Lillian's books

Short Stories Click on the leaf for more of Lillian's short stories

Check out the latest releases below

Blackness TowerBlackness Tower

March 2008
Juno Books
ISBN-10: 0809572028
ISBN-13: 978-0809572021

Blackness Tower:  an enigma at the edge of this world, looking over the sea to the next.  Drawing lonely, haunted souls to its ancient riddles, all seeking their own answers among its stones.  Ewan Calder is an archaeologist looking for a galleon from the Spanish Armada, one rumored to have wrecked on the rugged Scottish coast.  Magnus Anderson is a television presenter looking for proof of the paranormal.  David Sutherland is an ex-soldier looking for restoration--not only of Blackness Tower, but of his own life.

Lauren Reay is looking for answers about her family's mysterious past--and about her own compelling dreams.  Dreams can't hurt you, she thinks.  Neither can her ancestors.  The past is past.  But no.  It is Lauren's past, her presence, the shape of her face, the depths of her spirit, that will open the secret at the heart of Blackness Tower.

"Writing in the spirit of Mary Stewart, Lillian Stewart Carl spins a magical tale of a young Texas woman who travels to northern Scotland to learn about her ancestry.  Lauren Reay discovers much more at Blackness Tower, an ancient sacred site damaged by a tragedy that resonates through the centuries.  Only Lauren and the enigmatic owner of Blackness Tower have a chance of healing that damage--if they can survive the dark energies of the past.  Romantic and atmospheric, Blackness Tower is pure reading pleasure." -- Mary Jo Putney, author of A Distant Magic

Read the first chapter

NOTE:  Some booksellers have Blackness Tower listed as a May release, but this is old news.  The book will be available in March.


The Burning GlassThe Burning Glass

September 2007
Five Star Publishing
ISBN-10: 1594145911
ISBN-13: 978-1594145919

Book 3 of the Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron series: America's exile and Scotland's finest on the trail of all-too-living legends.  Cross-genre mysteries featuring Michael and Rebecca Campbell-Reid from Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust in cameo roles.

Read an Excerpt

In The Burning Glass, Alasdair and Jean are making a deliberate effort to put together a relationship.  Leaving Edinburgh to the crowds attending the annual Festival, they move into the caretaker's cottage of an old and spooky castle near Rosslyn Chapel. Rosslyn has been made so famous by The Da Vinci Code that only tour groups are admitted. It's a medieval church where the Holy Grail or the treasure of the Knights Templar is rumored to be hidden.

Ferniebank Castle includes a small chapel that's very similar and obviously related to Rosslyn, but is off the beaten path.  Or so they think.

Even before Jean meets Alasdair at Ferniebank, she hears that trouble is brewing there and in the nearby village of Stanelaw:  a local councillor has disappeared, a precious artifact has been stolen, and the castle's former caretaker has died under circumstances that make Alasdair's police-whiskers twitch.  It's a bad time for this sort of thing to be happening, since the owner of a popular New Age travel company has just bought the chapel and its healing well, intending to build a spa there, something that will revive the village economy.

As though Jean and Alasdair's plans aren't thrown enough of a curve when the New Age guru turns out to be his ex-wife, other crimes and then another death occur right on their doorstep.  And everything seems to track back to the former Mrs. Cameron.  Even though Alasdair is no longer a formal member of other police force, he and Jean must roll up their sleeves and wade in to yet another mystery.

A burning glass is a small lens used to focus the light of the sun and start a fire.

"A little romance, a dash of mystery, and a soupcon of history make a hearty dish." -- Kirkus Reviews

"...a dangerous and intriguing investigation.  Authentic dialect...detailed descriptions of the castle and environs, and vivid characters recreate an area rich in history and legend.  The tightly woven plot is certain to delight history fans with its dramatic collision of past and present." -- Publisher's Weekly, July 9, 2007


The MuseThe Muse and Other Stories of History, Mystery, and Myth

August 2007
Delphi Books
ISBN-10: 0976518554
ISBN-13: 978-0976518556

The Muse and Other StoriesClick on the leaf to learn more about The Muse and Other Stories.

In The Muse and Other Stories of History, Mystery, and Myth, Lillian Stewart Carl sweeps you through a magical mystery tour of history.

Thirteen stories take you from the British Colonies in America and India to medieval England and revolutionary Scotland.  Vividly realized worlds include Shakespeare's timeless Illyria and the very real twenty-first century.

People on-screen and -off include Thomas Beckett and Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Bonnie Prince Charlie, Queen Elizabeth I at her height, and Ann Boleyn, her mother, at her depth.  Carl's salves and soldiers, sorcerers and sinners--and even a striped cat or two--are often sleuths and always good company.

Humankind's great passions--greed, love and hate, the rights of man (and woman)--provide motives for murder and more.  And lives are touched by fantasy, because along that shore between the present and the past, nothing is certain.

The Muse and Other Stories includes twelve stories especially commissioned for theme anthologies (three of which were reprinted in "Best Of" anthologies) and a story from a magazine, plus new Author's Comments and a ne assy on writing short historical mystery.

"Top-notch entries include...Lillian Stewart Carl's 'Way Down in Egypt's Land,' a marvelous tale about 19th-century slavery..." -- Publisher's Weekly

"Inspired contributions include...Lillian Stewart Carl's 'The Necromancer's Apprentice,' which presents an interesting solution to the actual mystery surrounding the death of Amy Robsart, wife of Elizabeth I's favorite lord, balancing wizardry with astute deductions about the political motives of those who stood to benefit." -- Publishers Weekly


The Murder HoleThe Murder Hole

Book 2
Fall 2007
Trade paperback
August 2006
Five Star Publishing
ISBN 1-59414-480-X

Book 2 of the Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron series: America's exile and Scotland's finest on the trail of all-too-living legends.  Cross-genre mysteries featuring Michael and Rebecca Campbell-Reid from Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust in cameo roles.

 

The Murder HoleClick on the leaf to learn more about THE MURDER HOLE.

 


The Secret PortraitThe Secret Portrait

Hardcover now in its Third Printing
Paperback edition now available

A May 2008 Selection of the Worldwide Mystery Book Club!!

Book 1
Trade size
Wildside Press
ISBN 1-55742-923-5

Book 1 of the Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron series: America's exile and Scotland's finest on the trail of all-too-living legends.  Cross-genre mysteries featuring Michael and Rebecca Campbell-Reid from Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust in cameo roles.

The Secret PortraitClick on the leaf to learn more about THE SECRET PORTRAIT.


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