Media Kit
Book Title: Burning Secret
Author: R J Lloyd
Publication Date: 24 May 2022
Publisher: Matador
Page Length: 384
Genre: Historical Fiction
Twitter Handle: @rjlwriteruk @cathiedunn
Instagram Handle: @rjlwriteruk @thecoffeepotbookclub
Hashtags: #HistoricalFiction #FamilySaga #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub #CPBC
Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2023/09/blog-tour-burning-secret-by-r-j-lloyd.html
Book Title and Author Name:
Burning Secret
by R J Lloyd
Blurb:
Inspired by actual events, Burning Secret is a dramatic and compelling tale of ambition, lies and betrayal.
Born in the slums of Bristol in 1844, Enoch Price seems destined for a life of poverty and hardship-but he’s determined not to accept his lot.
Enoch becomes a bare-knuckle fighter in London’s criminal underworld. But in a city where there’s no place for honest dealing, a cruel loan shark cheats him, leaving Enoch penniless and facing imprisonment.
Undaunted, he escapes to a new life in America and embarks on a series of audacious exploits. But even as he helps shape history, Enoch is not content. Tormented by his past and the life he left behind, Enoch soon becomes entangled in a web of lies and secrets.
Will he ever break free and find the happiness he craves?
Influenced by real people and events, Enoch’s remarkable story is one of adventure, daring, political power, deceit and, in the end, the search for redemption and forgiveness.
Buy Links:
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/brBBOZ
Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/Burning-Secret-R-J-Lloyd-ebook/dp/B0B21XJM3Q/
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Burning-Secret-R-J-Lloyd-ebook/dp/B0B21XJM3Q/
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/Burning-Secret-R-J-Lloyd-ebook/dp/B0B21XJM3Q/
Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/Burning-Secret-R-J-Lloyd-ebook/dp/B0B21XJM3Q/
When Angel’s Fly – Guest Post.
Burning Secret by R. J. Lloyd
Burning Secret is a true story. Well, almost. The novel blurs the lines between fact and fiction as it reconstructs the life of Enoch Price, my great-great-grandfather, and is a story many can relate to through their ancestors and family histories.
Set at the end of the nineteenth century, it begins in the squalor of Victorian London. But it’s not long before the frontier town of Jacksonville, Florida, takes centre stage as it struggles to recover from the American Civil War and the end of slavery. The novel works on several levels: as a fast-paced thriller with plenty of derring-do, a morality tale of good vs. greed, and how life can easily corrupt the pursuit of happiness, and some have even suggested that below it all lies a tragic love story.
After retiring as a senior police officer, I turned my detective skills to genealogy, tracing my family history to the sixteenth century. However, after 15 years of extensive research, I could not track down my great-great-grandfather, Enoch Price, whose wife, Eliza, had, in living memory, helped raise my mother.
As a young girl, my mother could remember hushed conversations about her nan’s husband, Enoch, leaving the family to go to Florida to open a factory.
In June 2011, my cousin Gillian, a skilled family history researcher, called to say she had found Enoch through a fluke encounter. Susan Sperry from California, who had recently retired, decided to explore the box of documents given to her thirty years before by her mother, which she had never opened. In the box, she found references to her great-grandfather, Harry Mason, a wealthy hotel owner and powerful American politician from Jacksonville, Florida, who had died in 1919. It soon transpired that Susan’s great-grandfather, Harry Mason, was, in fact, Enoch Price. From this single thread, the extraordinary story of Harry Mason began to unravel, leading me to visit the States to meet my American cousins. It was Susan Sperry and Kimberly Mason, direct descendants, who persuaded me to write Burning Secret, not as a biography, but as a historical thriller, merging fact with fiction, to tell the story of the extraordinary adventurer, rogue and chancer that Harry, was.
Burning Secret took another eleven years to research and write, and sadly, both Susan and Kimberly passed away before the novel was complete.
The more I researched, the more I realised how much I needed to explore. Enoch is listed in the London Gazette as a bankrupt destined for two years in the debtors’ prison, from which few emerged unscathed. Abandoning his wife and three young daughters, he made for Florida. Here, in Jacksonville, he carved out his future and, by hook or crook, amassed a fortune and became a powerful politician. While all this time, his wife, Eliza, and daughters languished in poverty in the slums of Bristol, England.
The book is set mainly in Florida. Harry arrived in Jacksonville when it was still regarded as a frontier town, only sixteen years after the end of slavery and the Civil War. By 1888, he had married, bigamously, and lived with his new family at 509 West Adams Street in the upmarket district of LaVilla. That year, a deadly outbreak of Yellow Fever decimated the population of Jacksonville, followed in 1901 by the Great Fire of Jacksonville, which razed the city to the ground. Harry played a pivotal role in both these colossal events. But it was his audacious gamble to promote, against fierce public opposition, the 1894 World Heavyweight Boxing Championship fight between Gentleman Jim Corbett and the English challenger Charlie Mitchell. This fight turned his fortunes from bartender to millionaire.
In 1897, Harry was elected to the Jacksonville City Council, and in 1903 was elected to the Florida State House of Representatives. But his most outstanding achievement was building the Hotel Mason on the junction of Bay and Julia Street, which opened on 31 December 1913. The largest and most opulent hotel in Florida (demolished in 1978).
Harry died on 5 November 1919 at his home, the almost palatial Villa Alexandria, and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Jacksonville, Florida.
Enoch was a man who, in his 75 years, lived several lifetimes.
Author Bio:
After retiring as a senior police officer, R J Lloyd turned my detective skills to genealogy, tracing his family history to the 16th century. However, after 15 years of extensive research, he couldn’t track down his great-great-grandfather, Enoch Price, whose wife, Eliza, had, in living memory, helped raise his mother.
It was his cousin Gillian who, after several more dead-ends, called one day to say that she had found him through a fluke encounter. Susan Sperry from California, who had recently retired, decided to explore the box of documents given to her thirty years before by her mother, which she had never opened. In the box, she found some references to her great grandfather, Harry Mason, a wealthy hotel owner from Florida who had died in 1919. It soon transpired that Susan’s great grandfather, Harry Mason, was, in fact, Enoch Price.
From this single thread, the extraordinary story of Harry Mason began to unravel, leading R J Lloyd to visit the States to meet his newly discovered American cousins, and it was Susan Sperry and Kimberly Mason, direct descendants, who persuaded R J Lloyd to write the extraordinary story of their ancestor.
R J Lloyd graduated from the University of Warwick with a degree in Philosophy and Psychology and a Masters in Marketing from UWE. Since leaving a thirty-year career in policing, he’s been a non-executive director with the NHS, social housing, and other charities. He lives with my wife in Bristol, spending his time travelling, writing and producing delicious plum jam from the trees on his award-winning allotment.
Author Links:
Website: www.lloydfamilyhistory.co.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rjlwriteruk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roger.lloyd.948
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rjlwriteruk/
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.co.uk/R-J-Lloyd/e/B0B4KHGHXZ
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61333266-burning-secret
When Angels Fly 