C F Barrington
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Agent
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Biography
C F Barrington spent twenty years intending to write a novel, but found life kept getting in the way. Instead, his career has been in major gift fundraising, leading teams in organisations as varied as the RSPB, Oxford University and the National Trust. In 2015, when his role as Head of Communications at Edinburgh Zoo meant a third year of fielding endless media enquires about the possible birth of a baby panda, he finall retreated to a quiet desk and got down to writing.
Raised in Hertfordshire and educated at Oxford, he now divides his time between Fife and the Lake District.
WHEN WE WERE KILLERS - Head of Zeus - 6th March 2025
Five friends. One deadly obsession.
The salt-scented quadrangles of St Andrews University greet misfit first-year student Finn Nethercott with indifference. It is a place where privilege counts, and those from the right backgrounds can get away with murder.
Finn is quickly seduced into a new circle of friends – four history scholars obsessed with the deepest roots of ancient Scotland – who sweep him away on wild adventures to forgotten castles and faerie lochs.
But he soon discovers the darker sides of his new friends: deadly rivalries, midnight rituals, and a desperate search for a long-lost hallucinogen. And as Finn sinks into a world where he can’t always trust what he’s seen each night, the group will learn just how deadly obsession can be.
A shocking fever-dream of a thriller perfect for fans M.L. Rio’s If We Were Villains, Ashley Winstead’s In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and Ellie Keel’s The Four.
Praise:
“I was blown away by this visceral roar of a novel: erudite, pacy and deeply moving. Think The Secret History on acid. Beautifully written and impossible to put down.” – JS Monroe.
Publications
Fiction
A forbidden contest. An international game.
Bankrolled by the world’s wealthy elite and followed by thousands online, two teams of warriors vie for dominance … and the streets of Edinburgh run with blood.
Into this secret struggle steps Tyler Maitland, seeking his lost sister, and Lana Cameron, grieving her dead child. When they are accosted by figures in black hoodies and each handed a silver amulet, they recognise the Triple Horn of Odin – the talisman of the Valhalla Horde.
They are being recruited into the great game known as The Pantheon. And one day they will change everything.
Now they must risk their lives and join the ranks of seven ancient warrior teams which inhabit this illicit world. Their journey will be more wondrous and horrifying than anything they could have dreamed, taking each of them to the depths of their souls … and testing them to breaking point as they search for loved ones and for the meaning in their lives.
Let the Season begin.
The second in a dystopian thriller series, where modern-day recruits compete in an ancient fight to the death in the streets of Edinburgh.
New Season. New Rules. Same deadly game…
The Pantheon Games are the biggest underground event in the world, followed by millions online. New recruits must leave behind their twenty-first century lives and vie for dominance in a gruelling battle to the death armed only with ancient weapons – and their wits.
Last season’s new recruits Tyler and Lana have lived to fight another day, but now they face a series of even more lethal clashes before the Grand Battle that will bring the Season to a close.
It’s survival of the fittest in the most brutal fashion imaginable. As they race toward the bloody end, Lana must finally face the demons of her past, and Tyler will have to fight with the mother of all targets on his back…
he third gripping instalment in a dystopian thriller series where modern-day recruits compete in an ancient fight to the death in the streets of Edinburgh.
Live by the rules. Die by the rules. Or break the rules and take your chances in the chaos that follows…
After the shocking climax of the Grand Battle, Tyler must now earn the right to fight for his former adversary. With the blood of both the Titans and Horde on his hands, he will have to find a way to forge a new brotherhood amongst his enemies.
New identities, new brothers, a new cause… but the same blood will flow on the streets while those at the top enjoy the show and count the money rolling in.
This season won’t be like the others. Tyler must accept a new mission, one that hasn’t been attempted in twenty years of the Pantheon games: Tyler will kill the king. His life, and the search for his sister, depends on it.
This action-packed thriller is perfect for fans of Battle Royale and The Running Man.
THE GAME
From the beginning, The Pantheon has been a secret society of bloodshed and order. Modern-day gladiators abandon their lives, fall into rank and battle to the death – cheered on and funded by online watchers.
THE PLAYER
Tyler Maitland was recruited to fight in the Games, but his real ambition is finding his missing sister – even if it means bringing down The Pantheon for good.
THE END
The start of the Twentieth Season delivers never-before-matched teams to the fields of eastern Europe, where a hidden force will blow the truth of the Games wide open, once and for all…
