The Vanished Race [Kindle Edition]

Lee Moan (Author)

Book Description

VISIT THE AWESOME TEMPLE OF TOBRIOSUS
SOLVE THE GREAT MYSTERY OF THE VANISHED TOBRII RACE

For retired sleuth Barclay Heath, it was a mystery too great to resist. But as night falls on the deserted alien world, his fellow passengers begin to vanish one by one . . .

Heath must unravel an age-old mystery before time runs out, before he, too, suffers the same fate as the Tobrii . . .


The Barclay Heath Mysteries are set in a whimsical alternate-1920s, where humanity has ventured out into the stars but Twenties values and attitudes prevail. Barclay Heath is a gentleman detective enjoying semi-retirement from Earth’s Secret Service. Unfortunately for Heath, murder and subterfuge are never far away. As he travels the cosmos, he comes up against fiendish plots involving mysterious lost races, strange alien artefacts and, of course, a generous sprinkling of devious humans.

THE VANISHED RACE is approximately 33,000 words long and specially formatted for the Kindle by Rob Siders of 52 Novels with an active table of contents.

Cover artwork and design by Steve Upham (Screaming Dreams).


Praise for Lee Moan:

"Lee Moan captures the essence of the British Mystery added with the political tension of a Babylon 5 episode. Barclay Heath is a futuristic Hercule Poirot, a descendant of the gentleman detective, and is surrounded by a rich plethora of sidekicks and suspects that would make the Orient Express seem bland.

An enjoyable read for those who like their mysteries in hard vacuum.”

DAVID BOOP – Author of ‘She Murdered Me with Science’


Books in the Barclay Heath Mystery Series:

THE HOTEL GALILEO
THE VANISHED RACE

Look out for Volume 3 in the near future!

Product Details

• File Size: 234 KB
• Print Length: 144 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1463768370
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Weird New Ink (July 21, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005E1DBV0
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #493,948 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars This is an interesting and novel science fiction tale October 6, 2011

By Israel Drazin TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This futuristic science fiction e-book novel is exciting, suspenseful, and sometimes humorous. The characters are interesting and finely drawn. Retired secret service agent Heath, a human, tries to buy a seat on a space transport and discovers that someone has bought all of the seats. Cassie, an attractive human female, who is much younger than Heath, who is standing in behind him in the ticket line, offers him her extra ticket. Heath want to visit the planet to which the transport is traveling to find out what happened to the vanished peaceful Tobrii race. They disappeared without a trace. The waiting room is filled with diverse beings from many planets. One race, for example, is comprised of people with two personalities that sometimes argue with each other. Another race is made up of people with no hearts. Each being must consciously move its blood about its body. This race is unable to sleep, for if it became unconscious it would be unable to move its blood about and would die. Entering the spaceship, Heath discovers that there are only seven passengers on board and two crewmembers. Why did someone want the ship to carry so few passengers?

The tourists examine the Tobrii ruins. Some Tobrii articles are found. They hear a scream and find that the spaceship pilot has been disintegrated to dust. Now they are stranded until a new tourist ship arrives, but, in the interval, more of the nine people are disintegrated.

What is happening, how is it happening, and why? Also, what happened in the past to the Tobrii, how, and why? Is there a relationship between the current and the past events? If yes, why is it happening now; tourists have visited the planet for decades without any adverse incident? The answers to these questions are unusual and unexpected.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Old style science fiction story August 5, 2012

By Bob

Format:Kindle Edition

This is the first of the Barclay Heath Mysteries that I have read and from the publishers blurb "The Barclay Heath Mysteries are set in a whimsical alternate-1920s" it would have been helpful for this to be explained early in the book. The central character Barclay Heath is a retired agent of the "King's Secret Service" and comes across as a confident Holmes type character bordering on arrogant. The actual story is quite straightforward except for a twist at the end that I was not expecting. The strength of this book which is fairly short, 132 pages is the way characters and locations are described; I particularly liked the descriptions of the various aliens which were diverse and interesting. I don't know what age group this book is for but it is suitable for all ages and can be read either as a science fiction or detective novel. I liked the style which emulated earlier writers but it is not a style that all may like particularly if you like an all action battle style science fiction as this is certainly not one of these. Although a series it works well as a stand alone novel.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun Read June 4, 2012

By DaveReadsALot

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'd describe this book as cute and entertaining. The characters are well developed, the plot was interesting, and the twist at the climax was great. You won't be discussing this one in literature class but you will have fun with it for a few hours.

More About the Author

Lee Moan grew up in the English seaside town of Torquay, birthplace of the 'Queen of Crime', Agatha Christie. He now lives in the neighbouring town of Paignton. His stories have been published in numerous print and online magazines including Hub, Dark Recesses Press, Murky Depths, Jupiter SF, Twisted Tongue, and a forthcoming story in the Permuted Press anthology Best New Tales of the Apocalypse. In 2009, Wolfsinger Press published his first book, 'The Hotel Galileo', the first volume in an alternate-history mystery series. The sequel, 'The Vanished Race', followed in 2011. He is hard at work on volume three.

Watch this space for a slate of new works, including the first volume in a new three-part series entitled The Darknoll Chronicles, and 'Epiphany Rising', a vampire odyssey.

Visit the Steam-powered Typewriter Blog at http://leemoan.blogspot.com/ for more details and all the latest news.