Leap of Faith

The Temporal Detective Agency, Book 1

By: Richard Hardie

Narrated by: Penny Scott-Andrews

Merlin the wizard is a good-looking, but very well-disguised woman. She's also ambitious and becomes Arthur's mentor, falling in love with him. It's reciprocated, and they elope, leaving the wizard's cave to Tertia, Unita, and Marlene (Merlin's apprentices and her sister).

They start a detective agency, however bored with the lack of fifth century crime, they start up the Temporal Detective Agency and use Merlin's time portal to move from Camelot to the 21st century, where the cases are better. They also take Galahad, now owner of the Ole Grill restaurant, so he can act as their front.

One morning, the portal transports Tertia onto Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square, and then on a temporal diversion to South Wales in 1734, where she joins up with Bryn, a young Welshman, and sees her deadliest enemy - the Black Knight - who she believes to be Bryn's father.

Tertia and the agency try to solve the thefts of the Koh-i-noor diamond and the Mona Lisa. Realising that South Wales and the Black Knight are very much connected with their investigation, Tertia and Unita relocate to South Wales in 1734, where they come up against a gang of vicious ship wreckers, led by their deadliest enemy, the evil Black Knight.

Indeed, within an hour of arriving, Tertia is nearly killed by him. Going undercover, Tertia becomes a teacher in the village school, while Unita becomes a maid in Bryn's father's household.

One stormy night, they're on the clifftop, looking for wreckers, when they're surrounded. Help comes from Sir Gawain, who now lives in the South Wales village as the local squire. He had followed the Black Knight through time to Wales where they continued their fight. Gawain is actually Bryn's father, and has even more reason to hate his enemy after he believes the Black Knight killed his wife.

After convincing the Black Knight that she wants to join his gang of wreckers, Tertia learns where they intend striking next and helps Gawain defeat his enemy and his wrecking thugs in an ambush.

©2015 Richard Hardie (P)2020 Richard Hardie

Quite enjoyable...

This is a really cute book, especially in the YA category. The narration really makes it. There are several twists and turns that might get a bit confusing for younger listeners, but overall it’s well written. The characters aren’t as well fleshed out as I’d have liked but I’m hoping there will be more agency business in the future, giving the listener the opportunity to learn a bit more background story.

Time travel, detectives and Camelot. Fun twist.

No spoilers - listen to this book. Can’t wait to see what the detectives get up to next.

excellence

a wonderful extension of the story of after Merlin and Arthur with a beautiful use of imagery to draw you into a new world of detectives

New Take on Camelot

Leap of Faith by Richard Hardie is a delightful listen. I so enjoyed this time travel detective book. The characters are endearing, the descriptions are vivid, and the narrator is energetic. Penny Scott-Andrews was great performing the book. I really enjoyed this clever and humorous listen.

The portel time machine

Took a while to get into the story but as it went along the portel entry got interesting

Great Listen

I really enjoyed this book. It has comedy, romance, mystery and time travel! What more could you ask for? This is a YA book but I found it to be so interesting and funny.

I was given a copy of this audiobook in return for my unbiased opinion

Fun Story

I thought this was a really fun listen. Quirky, adventurous, and attitude. I am no Arthurian Legends expert, but I knew enough to understand the characters. I do not mind a gender swapped role, and it was tangential to the story, so it should not bother anyone. I am not saying this story will win any awards, but I hope to read more with these characters. My only down side was the narrator. She wasn't bad, I personally just found her voice a bit scratchy. She was generally pulling off the voice of a young girl, but it sounded like she had recently been yelling, and needed to recover. Not enough to keep me from reading more, but some thing that could be improved.

Leap of Faith review

An interesting, unique story, with a likable main character and a good narrator. Look forward to part two.

An enjoyable cozy mystery romp through time

This was a really good, giggle filled story interspersed with some laugh out loud moments that garnered me some odd looks in the office. The Olé Grill killed me. I'm looking forward to the next story.

reader lacks listenability

The synopsis was intriguing, but I couldn't tolerate the reader. I had to quit. Unless you like a pinched, nasally voice with an accent that sounds affected, don't bother with this book.