EZEKIEL'S GATE

It rains a lot in West Yorkshire, particularly around the eccentric (some would say funky) little former mill town of Belston Bridge, which lies tucked away in the folds of the Pennine Moors, close to the Lancashire border.Some say the rain there never seems to stop, but that's not strictly true, for the weather can be dry (ie. less soggy) in Summer (for the odd few days). But its now summer 2025, and as politically correct paranoia is busily creating a police state, the district seems to have broken all records for non stop rainfall since the advent of St. Swithins Day. Flood sirens are working overtime and boffins are getting worried. Could this be global warming finally 'kicking in?' Are we now witnessing the end of days?. Meanwhile, amid all this gas oven day despondency, ageing, grizzled police Inspector Jack Maudlin is dragged from his bed (minus his brolly) out into a filthy night to investigate two mysterious deaths in a remote farmhouse on the moors. What he finds there will change his life forever. Also meanwhile, in this same place,in the soggy summer of 1642, Captain Magdalen Sunderland of the Royalist army, has a Civil War to fight. Like Inspector Maudlin his life too, is about to be profoundly changed, but at the moment he's getting piss wet through! What on earth is going on? Is it really all about Climate Change? Or is there an even greater 'Inconvenient Truth'?. This is the bedrock idea of this book. It has all the elements of a detective yarn, time slip story, historical novel, and fantasy all rolled into one package. It is also quirky, occasionally rich in humour and has a total sense of place against the backdrop of which its protagonists act out the different scenes in the story, until in a parochial near future Belston Bridge, a clapped out old copper, biker vicar, a fire officer and a dowser (aka the town crank) bravely set out to SAVE THE WORLD!!. Jim Jarratt July 2018.