Stephen F. Clegg Livres

Based on a true story, the once-wealthy Chance family are swindled out of their Whitewall Estate in the mid-1700s and the truth isn’t discovered for nearly ninety years.In 1850 Maria Chance promises her dying father to put this injustice to rights, and is thereafter plunged into some extraordinarily dangerous and terrifying situations in mid-Victorian Britain that threaten not only her life, but her sanity too.One hundred and fifty years later, Naomi Draper, the Head of the local Council’s Historic Research Department, causes a long forgotten document case to be opened, and she too is immediately plunged into a web of intrigue surrounding ownership of the now named Whitewall Farm. As she and her diverse range of friends and allies begin to unravel the mystery, it soon becomes apparent that some very powerful people don’t want the truth disclosed, and that they are prepared to do anything to suppress it.A wonderfully compelling and exciting tale encompassing murder, love, intrigue, and betrayal spanning three centuries.

In 2006, following successive years of low rainfall, the dark and mysterious Malaterre Estate begins to resurface from the depths of a bleak northern reservoir. Within weeks a human bone is found; a bone that defies all logic... Historic researcher Naomi Wilkes is looking forward to a well overdue rest. Her marriage is good, she has a child on the way, and things have never looked brighter, but when she is called in to investigate the unusual occurrences at Malaterre, she has no idea that within weeks her life will be devastated by the tragic events that will unfold...

At the latter end of 2006, a well-respected, married, church Deacon discovers the possible hiding place of a huge ruby named 'The Fire of Mars'. He becomes obsessed by it and it drives his every thought, but when he meets and falls under the spell of the beautiful and bi-sexual Julie, his life begins to spiral to depths he never thought possible. In November of the same year, historic researcher Naomi Wilkes and her husband Carlton, arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, in pursuit of the same stone. And nobody has any idea of the horrific discoveries they will unearth...

'To develop and manufacture a devastating and demoralising weapon, deliverable by air, hitherto unknown by mankind.' In 1933 when Nazi Germany was on the rise, this was the brief issued to the secret K1 research facility, to manufacture a weapon so terrifying to foreign nations that it would deter the use of any specialist weapons against the UK. But what if that weapon was too terrifying? What if the exercises, planned for use on animals, were so horrific that some of the researchers balked at the idea and began to rebel? This is the situation in Stephen F. Clegg's The Hallenbeck Echo where the impact of K1's appalling development continues up until 2007 and brings the police into direct conflict with MI5 as they try to uncover a horrific past which is governed by the Official Secrets Act until 2087. In Walmsfield, Lancashire, historic researcher Naomi Wilkes is asked to investigate the disappearance of a young woman. In London a strange bleeping is heard coming from behind the wall of a house that is being renovated.

In 1864, a band of monks from an obscure religious branch move into Chadkirk near Manchester, England, and within weeks, children start to go missing. In 2009, a minor earthquake near Manchester exposes a huge wooden beam with a sinister and intriguing inscription on it and at the same time, a series of unusual and unsettling incidents begin to occur in a wood nearby. Historic researcher Naomi Wilkes is called in to investigate and she has no idea of the horror she will uncover.