Cirrus@Austlit

'It was a screaming face, the skin like dried leather. Stems ran from its gaping mouth, nostrils and empty eye sockets, from which the orchids grew and spread to consume the whole statue. ‘It’s the soulcatcher,’ said Julius. ‘Like the painting in Mr Darwin’s diary.’ IT’S 1838 and London is gripped by orchid fever. When Charles Darwin’s diary turns up in Higgins’s bookshop, it’s closely followed by two ex-bodysnatchers and a peculiar fellow with small teeth. Before he knows it Julius is spinning through time and parallel realms in a race to rid London of the soulcatcher and a future too horrible to imagine. Julius and the Soulcatcher is a fabulous time-travel adventure full of richly imagined characters and intricately crafted time twists, an exciting sequel to the much-loved Julius and the Watchmaker' (Publication summary)