The Seton family have been a recurring motif in my work almost since the beginning.
The first one, Alexander, turned up in my Watchers vampire trilogy as an alchemist working on the philosopher's stone and the mysteries of immortality. (That original mention was based on a real historical figure who was purportedly the first man to succeed in an alchemical quest and achieve immortality. Port Seton on the outskirts of Edinburgh is named after him)
Since then other Alexanders. who may or may not be the same man, have turned up in The Concordances of the Red Serpent thriller, several of the S-Squad books and several of my Sherlock Holmes works. Then there's Augustus, another Seton, a swordsman and warlock in 16th C Scotland for who I've written a dozen short stories. There's another Seton in present day Glasgow, meeting the Midnight Eye in the Farside novellete.
Their fates are all interlinked with the book, The Concordances of the Red Serpent, a Scottish alchemical work of great antiquity and dubious origin.
Which brings me to Faster Than The Hound. John is a young Seton, grifting on the streets of L.A., aware of small magics but not of his greater destiny. He finds some of it, and another family member, in the course of a hunt for a leather halter, the finding of which drags John deep into his family mythology and deep into The Concordances as mythological Scotland surfaces on the streets of the city.
It's a bit of a departure for me, this one,being more fantastical than is my normal wont, but I had a lot of fun with it, and I think it shows.
Seton has a hellhound on his tail, and he will have to travel far to avoid it, further than he has ever travelled before.
P.S. I stole the title from a favorite song on the Horslips album, The Tain. Don't tell anybody.
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