Linda Buckley-Archer

When Peter told me that The Tar Man had lost possession of the device to my former master, Lord Luxon, I was afraid. For I knew Lord Luxon’s heart better, I think, than any man alive…Lord Luxon was that most dangerous of creatures, a good man who has turned bad.
Kate Dyer and Peter Schock are just beginning to realise the full and terrifying consequences of time-travelling: each excursion that the children take into another century damages the time mantle of the universe, leaving the world vulnerable to devastating time quakes. Trapped once again in 1763 by the Tar Man, the children enlist the help of their loyal friend Gideon to track down both the elusive criminal and the anti-gravity machine that will put an end to time-travelling once and for all.

But neither they nor the Tar Man have counted on the devilish ambitions of Lord Luxon. Like any self-respecting eighteenth-century villain with a time-travelling device at his disposal, Lord Luxon knows there is only one place to be: the land of opportunity itself, America. Rallying a troop of the King’s finest Redcoats to his fiendish cause, he is determined to change the outcome of the American Revolution and claim the territory for himself. By radically altering the course of history, his plan will tear the time mantle apart. Kate and Peter must race across time and space to foil Lord Luxon’s wicked scheme if they are to prevent the world from tumbling into chaos and catastrophe.

Roaming from the muddy straw-strewn fairs of 18th Century London to the neon and chrome of New York City, TIME QUAKE is the magnificent concluding part to Linda Buckley-Archer’s captivating Time Quake Trilogy. Teeming with a vividly-drawn cast of fortune-tellers, watermen, fire-eaters and singing dogs, this is an epic adventure about friendship and courage told with glorious vigour.

In his years as Lord Luxon’s henchman the Tar Man had earned a fearsome reputation. Few dared say no to him and if they did they soon changed their mind… But here, wherever here was, he was alone and unknown and understood nothing… He clutched instinctively at the scar where the noose had seared into his flesh so long ago. What I need, he thought, is sanctuary. And a guide in this new world…
In GIDEON THE CUTPURSE, an accident with an anti-gravity machine catapulted Peter Schock and Kate Dyer back to 1763. Now a bungled rescue attempt leaves Peter stranded in the 18th century whilst a terrifying villain, The Tar Man, takes his place and explodes onto 21st century London.

Concerned about the potentially catastrophic effects of time travel, the NASA scientists responsible for the situation question whether it is right to rescue Peter. Kate decides to take matters into her own hands, and contacts Peter’s father for help. But things don’t go as planned, and soon the physical effects of time travel begin to have a disturbing effect on Kate. Meanwhile, in our century, The Tar Man wreaks havoc in a city whose police force are powerless to stop him…

Set against a background of contemporary London and revolutionary France, THE TAR MAN is the eagerly awaited sequel to GIDEON THE CUTPURSE.

Imagine a ghost story in which the past is visited by ghosts from the present rather than the other way round. GIDEON THE CUTPURSE is the story of two twelve-year-olds, Peter and Kate, who are catapulted back to the 18th century by an anti-gravity machine developed by Kate’s father, who is working on a NASA research project into dark energy. It is the story of the children’s adventures and survival in the criminal world of highwaymen, thieves and cutpurses, dominated by a terrifying individual known as the Tar Man, and Lord Luxon, the mysterious and powerful thief-taker.

At the end of this first novel in the GIDEON series Kate manages to escape back to the 20th century, but in the planned sequence of novels, so does the Tar Man, a fugitive from justice who now can launch himself as a master criminal in the modern world. Peter is trapped and grows up in the 18th century with his protector and close friend, Gideon. The GIDEON series tells a story about parenthood, love and friendship, as well as being a wonderfully exciting and imaginative adventure story. It also explores scientific themes of the nature of time and the awesome possibility of ‘ghosts’ knowing what lies in the future.

An English teen questions all she knows about aging when she encounters a set of journals that date from the present back to the reign of King Louis XIV in this blend of contemporary and historical fiction from the author of the acclaimed Gideon trilogy.

Stella Park (Spark for short) has found summer work cataloging historical archives in John Stone’s remote and beautiful house in Suffolk, England. She wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and her uncertainty about living at Stowney House only increases upon arriving: what kind of people live in the twenty-first century without using electricity, telephones, or even a washing machine? Additionally, the notebooks she’s organizing span centuries—they begin in the court of Louis XIV in Versailles—but are written in the same hand. Something strange is going on for sure, and Spark’s questions are piling up. Who exactly is John Stone? What connection does he have to these notebooks? And more importantly, why did he hire her in the first place?