April Taylor: British Crime Writer: Introducing Luke Ballard. Apothecary at Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace. Oh, and he is a magician, too…

When I first conceived the basis of the Luke Ballard stories, I was in the middle of the Atlantic, on a cruise ship, responsible for turning passengers, many of whom hadn’t sung since they were at school, into a choir and teaching them to sing as a united entity. And giving two concerts to the rest of the passengers to prove I had. And not making a fool of myself.

Instead of worrying about the tenor line in Elgar’s As Torrents in Summer, I was listening to a voice in my head telling me to write about Henry’s black-eyed boy. When I finally had time to sit and think it all out, and play what-if?, Henry’s black-eyed boy turned out to be Henry VIII’s son by Anne Boleyn.

In real life, Anne miscarried him. In my thesis, I decided he had lived, that Anne had overthrown all conspiracies aimed at ousting her, and she was still Henry VIII’s Sweet Nan. All of which meant I had to change history to what might have happened in a parallel universe. And, since the universe was mine to build, I would add in magic.

It took a while to find Luke Ballard, my protagonist. He would be an elemancer - a magician who casts his magic in the light and love of God and always works for justice. His magic was to be based around elements and, in the interests of maintaining the balance of the universe, he had to have enemies. Sunderers, in fact, whose only ambition is to gain power and wealth, preferably by demonic means.

I wrote 3 books, originally published by Harlequin, but I wanted to tell the story of what happened before Henry VIII died; how Luke came into his own. Which led directly to Dangers of Destiny. This is the new prequel to the series formerly known as The Tudor Enigma, but which will now be called The Luke Ballard Chronicles.

In Dangers of Destiny, Luke Ballard is a raw apprentice elemancer, sent into Hampton Court Palace to identify the sunderer who has put King Henry VIII into a deep trance. If Henry dies, England will descend into chaos, allowing the Catholic European powers to gain control. Time is short. The King grows weaker by the day. But in the midst of the many intrigues and conspiracies whirling around the palace, how can Luke tell friend from foe? Who can he trust?

Can Luke, thrown into the maelstrom of the Tudor court, identify and destroy the enemy while remaining undetected, and save the King’s life? The stakes are high. And highest for Luke if he fails.