Midnight Quintet blends history, suspense, and intrigue across five novels that look at critical moments in American, Russian, Chinese, and medieval French history. With an eye to everything from the JFK assassination, to Xi Jinping, to Rasputin, to the poet François Villon, this quintet plays the music of time as it informs our character, ambitions, and fears.
Afterlife
While seeking to resolve his wife’s disappearance, a travel writer uncovers mysteries in the White Mountains that lead to ghosts, CIA revelations, and disturbing answers to political events that shook America in the 1960s. The story begins with an unusual train ride.
Manhattan Wildelife
Naomi Nesbitt struggles to establish herself as both a woman and a journalist, as she is pushed to cover a wide variety of stories for Manhattan Wildelife. In this passage, dissident artist Wen Tengfei’s images mock both Xi Jinping and entrepreneur Frank Pace, while art critic Elsa Toov and climate change specialist Alan Johnson inform on Naomi’s surprising adventures.
Recurrence
Roger Martens strives to unravel what really happened in the JFK assassination in the face of editorial contention at Currents Magazine. As the article evolves, Roger decides to leverage labyrinths to lead his readers more creatively on their paths toward the truth.
The Northern Spy
Agent Felix Andropov, once assigned to guard Rasputin, attempts to recreate his life against a backdrop of extraordinary political events and a haunting series of murders in 1920 Petrograd. In this passage, he seeks to rediscover exactly how Rasputin died in an interview Vladimir Purishkevich, a monarchist politician, while in prison under the watchful eyes of Misha Volkov, once his professor in St. Petersburg.
Fremin
Fremin Le May chronicles his adventures with 15th Century French poet Francois Villon across courts, brothels, and prisons in this ironic and sometimes strident confession.
