Dark Heart

A steampunk novel.

December 14th, 1861. Queen Victoria dies from typhoid fever. A distraught Prince Albert holds their son, the Prince of Wales, directly responsible and exiles him to Europe. Using agents inside the government, Albert transforms the Society of Arts – the respected scientific and cultural bureau, of which he is patron – into a powerful political force which is able to take over the governance of the British Empire, with Albert as the head of state. Albert has one overriding ambition – to bring his queen back from beyond the grave, using the power of science and technology. Albert and the Society of Arts wield absolute power, steering the Empire down a dark path of scientific and technological ‘progress’ married with the magical and occult. But under the Prince’s guidance, science takes a wrong turn. As the 21st century dawns, the world remains trapped as a Victorian carcicature, industry powered by sun and steam. Nearly 150 years since the death of his wife, Albert still fights to bring her back, his lifespan unnaturally extended with steam power and black arts.

Across the Channel, Europe is a ravaged landscape, destroyed by the Great War of 1914-1918, in which the forces of the Empire battled against the supernatural horde, summoned forth from worlds beyond by the ignorant meddling of English occult scientists. Now, among the ruined cities, strange dark families have re-established unspeakable bloodlines and between them have carved kingdoms of the monstrous and undead. And in what safe havens remain, a covert terrorist organisation plots to overthrow the Prince and set the path of progress straight – the Interregnum, a ragged group of deposed aristocracy led by the descendents of the exiled Prince of Wales and the former Kings of Europe.

Somewhere else lies a darker threat. A power from a long-dead civilisation stirs, awakened by the path of progress and disturbed by Prince Albert’s magic. Some have seen the signs and crave this ancient power for themselves.

Enter Alexander Bellamy. Late of military intelligence, Bellamy once headed a special branch of the military assembled to investigate matters of the esoteric and supernormal and, when needed, defend the Empire against enemy agents determined to use the magical and occult to achieve their devilish aims. Dis-established and de-mobbed, Bellamy now directs his formidable experience of the uncanny towards his freelance occult-detective agency. A direct, but more secretive continuation of his work in the military, he is aided by long-time friend and fellow ghost hunter Dr. Jackson Clarke, and his own sister Zoe, ex-scientific advisor to the Society of Arts.

As Dark Heart opens, an explosion rocks central London, and Bellamy and friends are sent on secret mission into the jungles of West Africa…