THE SECOND COMING The year is 1667. In Restoration England, Protestant King Charles the Second sits on the throne of a country ravaged by recent civil war, plague and fire. In Catholic Spain, plague has devastated Seville and the country’s waning fortunes are in the hands of inexperienced regent Queen Mariana, Habsburg mother of debilitated heir to the throne, Carlos. In an atmosphere of religious zealotry and fear of the Inquisition, a shadowy organisation calling itself ‘The Hands of God’ is growing in power and influence. Their ambition is to bring about the End of Days, and the Second Coming as revealed to Saint John in his apocalyptic vision. But vital information, key to the success of their endeavours has been stolen. British Naval Lieutenant John Hadleigh and his companions have come into possession of this information, and the search begins to recover the secrets that the Hands of God themselves are seeking. The Caribbean, France, England, Spain, the frozen wastes of the Siberian taiga, the God-Trodden wilderness and Heaven’s Pinnacles themselves are the backdrop for high adventure, intrigue, eroticism, violence and the darker, more astounding implications of Saint John’s Book of Revelation. This is the book I was subconsciously waiting for and I bet you all are: a good old fashioned, well written story with a lot of suspense and well drawn characters you will simply adore. It is a book with humour and mysticism which takes you all over the world at a time in history when the world was still a mystery. As I writer I wished I would have written it myself. As a reader I’m happy Stuart did. Freya Van den Bossche