Greenwood Tree by B. Lloyd

Complete at approximately 83,000 words, Greenwood Tree is a historical supernatural mystery set between the 1780s and 1920s'

Pagan gods don’t walk away just because you stop looking at them.
Regency Lichfield society is enthralled by the arrival of dashing ex-officer Orville; he charms his way into the salons, grand houses and even a great inheritance from extrovert Sir Morton – very unexpectedly.

After making himself unpopular and bankrupt, he ends up dead under mysterious circumstances in the Gronny Patch, an eerie parcel of land on his estate that is associated in local legend with the Green Man.

A hundred and forty years later, detective writer Julia Warren returns to her home in Lichfield to write her next novel. Her Aunt Isobel, up to her neck in preparations for the annual midsummer ball, has managed to root out an old journal from 1780 which might prove a source of inspiration. Once Julia starts reading her ancestor’s journal she becomes absorbed in solving the mystery surrounding officer Orville and Gronny Patch. Detective fever takes her over, and she moves from reality to legend as the Green Man stalks her dreams; events from the past seem set to re-enact themselves in the present and she finds herself unraveling more than one mystery.

Greenwood Tree started off inspired by a writing competition where the book had to be set in or around Lichfield. A life-long interest in mythology, and things generally spooky added extra fuel, plus observation of the continuous consumer interest in ‘GoldenAge’ crime fiction, topped with the old adage ‘Write the kind of book you would like to read’. Historically, the Georgian-Regency and 1920s are particularly favourite periods of mine and offered an excuse to delve into background research. It has been scribbled on laptop or in notebooks, on loose flying scraps of paper, on the backs of train tickets, the usual, and now sits on a few bookshelves on Authonomy in the hope of attracting an agent or publisher (ideally UK-based).

Partially uploaded onto Authonomy : http://www.authonomy.com/books/3374/greenwood-tree/A sequel (‘Of Soul Sincere’) is in progress (opening excerpt posted at http://authorsanon.wordpress.com/work-in-progress/#another-identifier)
Thank you for taking the time to consider my work. I look forward to hearing from you.

B.Lloyd
AuthorRing@gmail.com