Tanks, spies and assassinations - history just got interesting!

Day of the Assassins by Johnny O’Brien is a fast-paced time travel adventure set within an accurate historical context.  It takes fifteen year-old Jack Christie and his friend Angus to the period just before the outbreak of the First World War.  Following a desperate chase across Europe the adventure climaxes in Sarajevo, on the day of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  Here, Jack must make an agonising choice with momentous implications for himself, his family and for humanity.  Day of the Assassins, aimed at children from ages 10 to 14, is the first in a major new series from Templar and comes with Templar’s distinctive packaging and add-ins.

Johnny O’Brien (pictured right) was inspired to write the novel after seeing some of his grandad’s war medals in an old cupboard. “A few years ago my dad showed me some medals that his dad (my grandfather) had received during the First World War.  He explained that my grandfather had been injured in the war and had later lost part of his leg.  Apparently, my grandfather was reluctant to speak about how he got the injuries or how he won the medals. I don’t really know why.  But I know what he did was brave – because I have a citation at home signed by the ‘Minister of War’ - Winston Churchill. Anyway, unlike millions of others, my grandfather survived the war and went on to have children and live to a ripe old age – although I never knew him. It got me thinking though.  He made important choices in his life – he chose to fight in the war.  It seems he chose to do something brave.  Later he chose to have a family.  If he had made different choices, of course, I might not be here.”

Day of the Assassins is a terrific debut novel that brings this exciting period of history to life in dramatic style. The book also includes a map of Europe in 1914, as well as a timeline of the events of the First World War and background information about some of the facts of the time. Day of the Assassins is the first in a series of Jack Christie Adventures published by Templar Publishing. The second book planned for 2010 will be set in Elizabethan England and the time of the Armada when Jack and Angus will don doublet and hose to save the world for a second time.