The Ring of Mann

Viking Series

Viking ancestry dominates North West England and a chance meeting of a Knight Templar monk and a stonemason reveals the legend of an ancient runic ring relating to early settlement. The event is recorded in the abbey scriptorium and after the dissolution of the monasteries a copy of the tome is gifted to Hawkshead Grammar school and the legend of the runic ring gains credence. Three teenage cousins are complicit in the mysterious disappearance of a woodcutter. MARY is haunted by an ancient vision she calls her woman of death and fears there is more to her inheritance than the silver runic ring and her Spanish beauty. DAMIAN is Mary's loyal and simple-minded younger brother who is the church gravedigger. He is a proud liar, obsessed with keeping secrets and curious about death. Their younger cousin THOMAS is a flamboyant storyteller who convinces Mary that her husband's black colt and the silver finger ring are embodied in runic legend. The severed hand of the missing woodcutter is secreted away in a cache Thomas shares with Damian. The cousins run afoul of pompous ex-Cromwell cavalryman MAJOR RATHBONE, who with his allegiance switched to church and king, is hell-bent on destroying the local Quaker community. His actions threaten to destroy the fledgling romance of Thomas and Sarah, a rebellious Quaker girl. The Ring of Mann is set in a secluded corner of North West England, beginning in 1240AD amid the extensions of Furness Abbey and an investigation into the reigning abbot's clandestine shipping trade. A segue moves the story forward to 1663AD during the reign of King Charles II and relates the great plague, the fire of London, and the introduction of England's first prized horse race. An adventure into history, laced with Norse mythology, mystery and intrigue and as the past haunts the present pagan beliefs emerge and a restless spirit instills rage into the soul of an innocent young womwn.