Peace has reigned in Cruachan since Seamus, the first High King, united the three kingdoms into a Confederation and, with the assistance of the dwarfs from the Sawtooth Mountains in the north and the elves from the Tangled Woods in the east, drove the occupying Northmen from the island nation. Yet there is an undercurrent of unrest. Some Cruachanians fought for independence, thinking that the hereditary system of government with its shire chieftains and provincial kings would be replaced by a republic. Others, who profited handsomely under the occupiers, still dream of yesteryears' wealth.In Book #1 of The Chronicles of Pádraig, the teenage son of a blacksmith, has been blessed as an adept. Having no interest in attending the Academy for the Spiritually Gifted to hone his talent and become a wizard, Pádraig plans on following in his father's footsteps. However, three seemingly disparate events may cause him to rethink his future. A Northman assassin washes up on the beach below a fortress that the High King is visiting in the Kingdom of the Western Shires. A blacksmith is murdered in the Central Federal Region. And, in the Kingdom of the Northern Shires, the High King's son is kidnapped.Now the young adept must use both his wits and his unpolished gift to put the pieces of the puzzle together in order to solve the murder of his fellow blacksmith, thwart the kidnappers, and save the Confederation.
Mystery writer, playwright, and part-time actor Bill Stackhouse has a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from General Motors Institute in Flint, Michigan, and a Master's degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. At Ford Motor Company and later, as Director of Quality Assurance & Training at a large automotive parts supplier, Bill became involved in the development of instructional manuals and training films. In the throes of a mid-life crisis, he decided to pursue the most enjoyable aspect of his job on a full-time basis-writing. Bill's scriptwriting credits include training films and promotional videos for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to name a few. He has also written numerous radio and TV commercials. Branching out from technical writing into the arts, four of Bill's seven stage plays (The Best Laid Plans, The Early Bird, To Serve and Protect, and A Tradition of Service) have won contests-a local, a statewide, a regional, and a national. In addition to playwriting, Bill has directed many productions for various community theatres. For a very brief time, he even had a theatre company of his own. Author of The Ed McAvoy Mystery Series, set in New York's Catskills, and The Caitlin O'Rourke Mystery Series, set in Nashville, A Spark is Struck in Cruachan, the first book in The Chronicles of Pádraig tetralogy, is his tenth novel.
