The King’s Gold: An Old World Novel of Adventure

HarperCollins, May 2008

Excerpt: “He rolled his eyes to the ceiling. ‘I have no interest in fiction. The business that draws me to this store tonight is of a much more…practical nature than that of fantasy.’ A cold finger seemed to touch my heart when he said that. ‘Oh—pretty ring.’ He glanced down at the diamond-glow wavering above my knuckle. ‘But…enough with the pleasantries! Let’s get right to business, shall we?’ He held up the parcel so that its white wrapping caught the lamplight, rustling the papers inside a little, and this did snag my attention. ‘For I’ve traveled such a very long way to see you.’ ”

Praise: “With continued talk about mythical creatures, magical potions, alchemic experiments and inexplicably lost fathers, not to mention a series of miraculous coincidences, mystical riddles and the like, there’s the underlying threat of a story going completely out of control. But Murray does a pretty nifty job of pulling it all together at the end, with a credible resolution that actually makes sense.” Nicholas A. Basbanes, author of A Splendor of Letters in the Los Angeles Times book review