"Serious literary fun as Mark Hodder vaults to the front of the new steampunk writers pack. Elaborately researched and name-checked, THE SECRET OF ABDU EL YEZDI races Victorian explorer Sir Richard Burton through a diabolically baffling maze of historical possiblities - plus there"s corsets and airships. Hard to imagine any lover of alternate British empires not being thoroughly amazed and entertained". K.W.Jeter. Mark Hodder is the author of A Red Sun Also Rises and the Burton & Swinburne novels The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man, and Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon. A former BBC writer, editor, journalist, and web producer, Mark left London, England, for Valencia, Spain, to de-stress and write novels. He has a degree in cultural studies and loves British history, good food, cutting-edge gadgets, Tom Waits, and a vast assortment of oddities. He"s the creator and caretaker of the Blakiana website celebrating Sexton Blake, the...