New Five Directions Press Release

Two days ago, Five Directions Press released its latest title: Gabrielle Mathieu’s The Falcon Flies Alone, her debut novel and first in a trilogy about the adventures of Peppa Mueller, the daughter of a Harvard professor whose interest in and talent for chemistry Peppa has inherited. After her father’s untimely death, Peppa winds up in his ancestral home of Basel, Switzerland, under the care of her aunt and uncle—whose priorities in life are, to put it mildly, very different. She runs away. By the time we meet her, she has only a few weeks to wait until she reaches the magic age of twenty, when she will gain access to her father’s fortune. But this is fiction, so fate (or is it design?) soon takes an unexpected turn.
 
Courtney J. Hall outdid herself on the book cover, and the book description and the reviews set the tone. To hear an excerpt or read a preview, stop by our website. And while you’re there, don’t forget to sign up for our quarterly newsletter, which includes the free gift of hand-drawn adult coloring book pages and will place you on the list for our occasional press releases.

The Falcon Flies Alone (FALCON TRILOGY 1)
Gabrielle Mathieu

As the sun rises on a quiet Swiss mountain village in 1957, runaway Peppa Mueller wakes up naked and stranded on the roof of her employer’s manor, with no idea how she got there. As she waits for help, she struggles to piece together fragmented memories of the previous night. Did she really witness the brutal massacre of a local family? Did she kill them? Her fear of sinister house guest Dr. Unruh fuels her panic—as do electrifying flashes of a furious falcon, trapped inside her.
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Wanted for murder, Peppa flees the police, intent on finding out if there’s a scientific explanation or if she’s just going mad. Her godfather, world-renowned chemist Dr. Kaufmann, risks his career to help her. In the meantime, Peppa fights her attraction to the handsome priest from India who offers her shelter. With their help, she not only finds Dr. Unruh but places herself at his mercy. His experiments may hold the answer to Peppa’s questions, but the revenge she plans could kill them both.

“Unpredictable, intelligent, and imaginative, this story soars into the unknown. Climb on and enjoy the flight of your life.”—JJ Marsh, author of the Beatrice Stubbs series
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“Quirkier than hell on a hot day. It has that unsettling and surreal Twin Peaks feel to it.”
—Editor John Hudspith
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“An intriguing blend of science and the occult—it will keep you reading.”
—David E. Nichols, PhD, Distinguished Professor Emeritus,
Purdue University College of Pharmacy

And for those of you who enjoyed last week’s post about Bridgette Alexander’s new YA novel, Southern Gothic, my friend Susan Raab has just become the host of the latest NBN channel, New Books in Children’s Literature. Her first guest is ... Bridgette Alexander! You can hear the interview and subscribe to her free podcast at the New Books Network site.