Mystery and magic propel this fast moving adventure story. Orphans Ray and his sister Sally are dispatched on a train to find a new life with adopted parents. But, guided by the lodestone left to him by his father, Ray senses that something is wrong. Leaping off the train he falls in with a travelling medicine show and a bunch of strange and eccentric characters who put on a mesmerising performance. Ray knows that something sinister is pursuing them but will he be able to keep one step ahead, stay safe and most importantly find his sister?
Roll-up! Roll-up! For the greatest adventure on earth! Enjoy an intoxicating chase across the US frontier! A cast of characters as remarkable and inspiring as a blind sharpshooter hitting a bulls-eye in a wild west rodeo! A story as full of twists and turns as a barrelful of snakes! Hold on to your hats-the journey of a lifetime is about to begin!
John Claude Bemis has always been fascinated by trains. His grandfather, who rode trains all over the country in his ‘hobo days’, filled John’s head with curious stories of America’s lost past.
John grew up in rural eastern North Carolina, where he loved reading, swimming in the swampy creeks around his house, and playing music in youth orchestras and rock bands. He began his writing career as a songwriter with the Americana roots band Hooverville. Through old-time country and blues music, he became fascinated with the way America’s myths have been passed down through songs.
Drawing on the legend of John Henry’s struggle against the stream drill, John began exploring how Southern folklore could be turned into epic fantasy. This passion grew into his first novel, The Nine Pound Hammer, a story set in a mythical 19th-century America full of hoodoo conjurers and cowboys, battling trains and steamboat pirates. With his M.Ed. in literacy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, John teaches the books that he loves to academically gifted elementary students. He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina with his wife Amy and their daughter Rose.
