REVIEW:- Molly COCHRAN & Warren MURPHY - “The Forever King“

Year Published: - 1992
Where the book was from:- My own copy- ex-library
ISBN: - 1 857980182
Pages: - 364pp
Genre: - Fantasy adventure
Location:- Chicago, Somerset
How I came across it: - Serendipity - On library sale table
Rating: - ***** ***

One sentence summary:- An original take on the Camelot legend as magic is let loose in the twentieth century.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:- An ex-FBI agent gets involved in protecting a 10 year old boy and his aunt after the boy accidentally stumbles across a metal cup, dropped by bank robbers in Chicago. Meanwhile, in Hampshire, a prisoner with no name escapes from a secure unit for the mentally unstable and seems to have a whole army of supporters. The boy inherits a piece of real estate in Somerset and that is where the action begins to really unfold as an old man with white hair becomes another ally.

General comments:- "A fresh and exciting view of the Arthur legend" (Robert Jordan, author of The Dragon Reborn). "Books like this don't come along very often." Marion Zimmer Bradley.

There are two more books in the series:-

1. The Forever King (1991) (with Warren Murphy)

2. The Broken Sword (1997) (with Warren Murphy)

3. The Third Magic (2003)

Quotations:- nil

AUTHOR Notes:- 

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Molly Cochran lived in Europe and was educated at the University of Pittsburgh and the Sorbonne in France. She has written 26 books, including 12 ghosted novels, and the non-fiction bestseller, 'Dressing Thin', before her own first novel, Grandmaster, was a New York Times Bestseller. Since then, she has written almost a dozen other suspense and fantasy thrillers. She also writes under the pen name of Dev Stryker. 'A Wilderness of Mirrors' is published by Tor Books. (I don't understand the principle of a ghosted novel. Ghosted 'autobiography' in which someone writes a life story on behalf of a celebrity is understandable but what is a ghosted novel? Do you write a new Terrry Pratchett on his behalf and publish it under his name for him?

Warren Murphy was born in Jersey City, where he worked as a reporter and editor. After the Korean war, he drifted into politics, "but when everybody I worked for went to jail, I thought God was sending me a message to find a new line of work." Warren Murphy writes screenplays and his film credits include 'Lethal Weapon 2'. The first Destroyer novel followed soon after. Murphy says he has "the usual passel of snot-nosed kids, Deirdre, Megan, Brian, Ardath and Devin, some of whom now have their own snot-nosed kids." He has been an adjunct professor at Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA, and has also run workshops and lectured at many other schools and universities. His hobbies are golf, mathematics, opera and investing. He lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia. 

New or unusual words:- ...the hardscrabble earth still sprouted clumps of hearty weeds... hardscrabble means returning little in exchange for great effort; characterized by chronic poverty and hardship.