The Book
Destiny of Souls
Susan and her husband Ben strive to rebuild their lives following their life and death battle with the diabolical Lord Mortimer. But the couple soon realise the threat to mankind’s future is far from over, as the fiendish Madam Scorpion continues Mortimer’s plans to build an army of soulless, ready to enslave the world at his command.
As Susan draws inspiration from the past, we meet Henry VIII’s secret seventh wife, find out what really happened at Stonehenge, cross the Atlantic to the blue haven with Sigrid the Shield-maiden’s Viking félag, and finally learn the horrifying truth about Mortimer’s wartime collaboration with the Nazis.
In the present, Susan and Ben’s children are embroiled in the deepening global crisis as the empty generation poses an ever-growing danger. But what soul inhabits their daughter? Is she truly evil, does she deserve to be exterminated? Or have they got the wrong girl?
While Susan makes a last attempt to save humanity, Ben races to complete a desperate mission of his own. Driven apart, each must hope the other will succeed.
The Author
Carl Bayley is a tax writer turned storyteller. He is a past chairman of the Tax Faculty of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and former member of the institute’s board and council. Carl has been writing a series of successful plain English tax guides since 2002, including, at one time, the best-selling print on demand publication in the UK. He published his first novel, Trinity of Souls, in 2024.
How The book came to be
Carl explains: “The concept of doomed lovers bound together across time first came to me when a work colleague told me how she was approached in a nightclub (in Edinburgh in the 1990s) by a man who apologised for how he had apparently abandoned her in the 1640s but, as he explained, he had been killed in battle before he could return. My colleague even said she recognised him. This gave me the idea for a story about a tragic couple meeting time and again throughout the ages, but always being kept apart. I explored this concept in Trinity of Souls but wanted to explore further in this book.
I also wanted to explore more of my favourite historical periods, which hadn't made it into the first book, including Roman, Viking, and Tudor. I took the opportunity to look at the mystery of Stonehenge and speculate what might have happened there, thousands of years ago. The great joy for me in visiting all these periods was the chance to weave fact and fiction together, not contradicting history but complementing it.
Destiny of Souls also gave me the opportunity to further examine the concept of reincarnation and look at some of the things that might happen: like seeing the night your parents met, or telling your long-lost family from a past life that you're their murdered sister reborn.
Lastly, for one of Destiny's major storylines, I wanted to return to the Scottish Highlands, particularly Skye, where so much of the inspiration for The Souls Series had begun.”
RELEASE DATE: 28/03/2025 ISBN: 9781836281955 Price: £9.99
Tagged in Book releases