Cirrus@Austlit

'Mia Montrose is a 21st-century Australian woman with a Doctorate in Ancient Languages who has just scored the most promising job of her career.

When Mia experiences mysterious happenings and forces beyond her control, she begins to understand that history does not always stay in the past.

Ashlee Granville is a 19th-century clairvoyant, forced to suppress her talents as she enters the marriage market of English upper-class society. But Ashlee is not a girl who likes to bow to the inevitable - she has plans of her own.

Lillet du Lac is a 13th-century woman, priestess of an ancient order now protected by the Cathar faith, who are making their last stand against the Roman Catholic Franks at the giant hill fort of Montségur. As the castle falls, Lillet escapes with something more valuable than any of their lives ...

Despite the time, distance and cultures that separate them, these women have several things in common. They belong to an ancient bloodline of Grail kings, protected by a Sion knight named Albray, and they are each compelled to visit an ancient mountain in the Sinai. This mountain contains the keys which may unlock a gateway to a dimension of light and the Gene of Isis'.

Source: publisher's website (http://www.harpercollins.com.au/).

'Ashlee Devere, 19th century clairvoyant, adventurer and historian, is called upon to authenticate a Sumerian text that predates the Old Testament.

'Tamar, daughter of the renowned 21st century linguist Mia Montrose, reading Ashlee's diaries for the first time, undergoes an astounding transformation - psychically and physically.

'Kali, a powerful goddess, and one of the keepers of the lost key to the gateway between our world and the next, is coming ...

'From the pyramids of Egypt to the legendary Halls of Amenti, from future myth to ancient science, from the sacred to the profane - the race to unlock the secrets of the Grail bloodline challenges the very nature of the gods ...' (Publisher's blurb)

'Mia Montrose, archaeological linguist, has discovered that the Black Madonna is a code used by secret societies throughout time for the lost key to an ancient power source: the Sphere of Amenti.

'Kali, inter-dimensional Queen of the Anunnaki - now fully merged with the youngest Dragon Queen, Tamar Devere - has less than a year to rehabilitate her Fallen kindred who desire inter-galactic domination. Ashlee Granville-Devere, and the Dragon Queens must pool their talents to open the twelve Stations of the Signet Grid and unlock the Halls of Amenti lest the Fallen succeed in using time-travel technologies to destroy humanity.

'From the ancient past to the distant future, from Montsègur to the way-stations of the universe, from the Underworld of the Kali Rift to the Otherworld of the Ranna Time Flow - the inter-time war must be won for the sake of the future.' (Publisher's blurb)