Chateau Beyond Time

What if you knew the location of the Garden of Eden? To what lengths would you go to protect it?

Imagine a lost world where animals have been sheltered from extinction since the Ice Age-a "Noah's Ark" threatened by poachers.

In Chateau Beyond Time, celebrated explorer, author and filmmaker Michael Tobias draws us into an exquisite kingdom: a sublime refuge with fiercely protected surroundings. This chateau, nestled within an unexpected wilderness in the heart of France, has only been known to artists, philosophers and kings: the exclusive members of a secret society of guardians dating back to the dawn of humanity.

Deputy Director of the Interpol Wildlife Secretariat Jean-Baptiste Simon is awakened by a phone call in the middle of the night: a one-horned animal has escaped from smugglers on the docks of Antwerp. The next day, an elderly museum gardener is murdered, a horn thrust through his throat. Even more baffling is the nature of the horn. Its DNA profile leaves the forensic team at an utter loss.

Meanwhile in London, Martin Olivier, a specialist dealing in many of England's finest estates, with his wife Margaret, a precocious art historian and museum curator, is befuddled by an urgent message from an eccentric uncle, James, whom Martin hasn't seen in years. Martin must come at once to a place he had always been told was simply a remote family farm. He is given a series of cryptic instructions, including a map delivered by a falcon. Martin and Margaret will soon discover that the Olivier family is heir to an ancient lineage of stewardship, and they are plunged into a desperate race to save nothing less than the original Arcadia.

Publishers Weekly

At the start of this well-written and sophisticated thriller from Tobias (Deva ), a strange one-horned animal breaks out of a storage crate being unloaded at the Port of Antwerp and disappears into the city streets. The initial police inquiry reveals that someone may have weakened the container to allow the creature, which could be the legendary unicorn, to escape. Meanwhile, Martin Olivier, a London attorney specializing in liquidating estates, gets a cryptic message from his uncle James requesting they meet at a remote French chateau. There James informs Martin of a family secret connected with the Order of the Golden Fleece, a venerable society whose members may be protecting the location of the actual Garden of Eden, the home of animals long believed extinct. Aided by his wife, a curator and Renaissance expert, Olivier pieces together the clues linking Beethoven, Rousseau and Sir Thomas More, among many others, to find the truth. The novel's central conceit may be hard for some readers to swallow, but those looking for an original twist on the ancient conspiracy theme will be well rewarded. (May)

Michael Tobias, Ph.D., has taught environmental affairs at numerous universities, including Dartmouth and the University of California-Santa Barbara, where he was both a Visiting Professor as well as a Regents' Lecturer. Tobias has conducted extensive ecological field research in some eighty countries. Tobias is the author of thirty five books of both fiction and nonfiction and has directed, written, and/or produced well over one hundred films for broadcast throughout the world. His best-selling novel Voice of the Planet was made into the award-winning ten-hour TBS miniseries starring William Shatner and Faye Dunaway. Tobias's novel Fatal Exposure was the basis for the movie The Sky's on Fire, starring John Corbett and Bradley Whitford, and based upon Tobias's research in the Antarctic. In 1996, Tobias received the "Courage of Conscience Award" for his commitment to animals.