Million Eyes by C.R. Berry

Million Eyes by C.R. Berry, Published in e-book 10th January 2020 and paperback in March 2020, by Elsewhen Press.

How does a dry textbook, published in 1995, end up being mentioned in historical papers hundreds of years old and in another book published nearly twenty years before it was even written?

When ex-history teacher, Gregory Ferro, finds impossible evidence of an incredibly boring book, The History of Computer-Aided Timetabling for Railway Systems by Jeremy Jennings, in some old documents from 1348, he becomes convinced that time travellers have been manipulating history.

He soon persuades down-on-her-luck graduate, Jennifer Larson that it looks like something very peculiar might be going on, and they team up to try to solve the mystery.

It appears they are on to something, as they have made themselves the target of some very dangerous people, who are keen to keep their machinations secret.

What if they are right, and we are living in a timeline that has been deliberately altered by a powerful force out to take control of us all?

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I am somewhat of a self-confessed connoisseur when it comes to stories about time, as I absolutely adore them and have read loads. So. the fabulous sounding Million Eyes immediately grabbed my attention when I heard about it.

Well, readers, I have to tell you that I have not been disappointed! Million Eyes has everything I look for in a book about time travel - a compelling story and convincing time-lines - and I enjoyed every time-warped minute of it!

The story moves back and forth between the past, present and future, as we follow the adventures of Jeremy Jenning's apparently sleep-inducing book, giving us the low-down on the historical mentions Gregory Ferro and Jennifer Larson uncover. Trust me when I say that your head will spin at times, as you try to follow some of the time loops in play, but this is one of the things I absolutely love about this sort of book when it is done well.

There are some pretty significant players in history who have a part in the story - William II, Edward III, the Princes in the Tower, a very famous Victorian killer, and even Princess Diana  - and it turns out that the days of old we may have learned about in school might not have happened the way the textbooks have claimed.  Conspiracy theorists are going to love this book! C.R. Berry works these famous names most persuasively into this science fiction tale, and several of the scenes actually had me chuckling - even the very bloody ones - as there is a deliciously dark vein of humour that runs through the whole shebang.

I really enjoyed the way Million Eyes gets you thinking about corporate greed and how huge conglomerates are trying to take over our lives - there are some obvious targets that C.R. Berry pokes fun at here (think a certain search engine provider and a fruit-themed electronics manufacturer), which I found both amusing and very pertinent. There is also a little nod towards the weirdness of current American politics at the end of the book too, which was brilliant.

There are even a couple of intriguing websites around this book to explore to feed the imagination - one is Gregory Ferro's blog, detailing his discoveries and the other is the "actual" Million Eyes company website - and you can find the links below. Inspired!

Million Eyes Company Website
Gregory Ferro's Blog

Million Eyes is a cracking five star romp of a read, and I can thoroughly recommend it both to those of you who love a time-travel story, and those of you who may be new to the genre. This is set to be the first part in a new trilogy, and I cannot wait for more.

Thank you to Rachel Gilbey of Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me to be part of this blog tour, and to C.R. Berry and Elsewhen Press for gifting me a copy of Million Eyes, in return for an honest review.

Million Eyes is available to order now from the following links:

Elsewhen Press

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

There is also a free to download book of short stories set around the world of Million Eyes.
You can find the link here.

From the book cover:

How do you fight an enemy who has a million eyes?

What if we’re living in an alternate timeline? What if the car crash that killed Princess Diana, the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower, and the shooting of King William II weren’t supposed to happen?

Ex-history teacher Gregory Ferro finds evidence that a cabal of time travellers is responsible for several key events in our history. These events all seem to hinge on a dry textbook published in 1995, referenced in a history book written in 1977 and mentioned in a letter to Edward III in 1348.

Ferro teams up with down-on-her-luck graduate Jennifer Larson to get to the truth and discover the relevance of a book that seems to defy the arrow of time. But the time travellers are watching closely. Soon the duo are targeted by assassins willing to rewrite history to bury them.

Million Eyes is a fast-paced conspiracy thriller about power, corruption and destiny.

There are also two fabulous book trailers here:
Trailer one    Trailer Two

About the author:

C.R. Berry caught the writing bug at the tender age of four and has never recovered. His earliest stories were filled with witches, monsters, evil headteachers, Disney characters and the occasional Dalek. He realised pretty quickly that his favourite characters were usually the villains. He wonders if that’s what led him to become a criminal lawyer. It’s certainly why he’s taken to writing conspiracy thrillers, where the baddies are numerous and everywhere.

After a few years getting a more rounded view of human nature’s darker side, he quit lawyering and turned to writing full-time. He now works as a freelance copywriter and novelist and blogs about conspiracy theories, time travel and otherworldly weirdness.

He was shortlisted in the 2018 Grindstone Literary International Novel Competition and has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Storgy, Dark Tales, Theme of Absence and Suspense Magazine. He was also shortlisted in the Aeon Award Contest, highly commended by Writers’ Forum, and won second prize in the inaugural To Hull and Back Humorous Short Story Competition.

He grew up in Farnborough, Hampshire, a town he says has as much character as a broccoli. He’s since moved to the “much more interesting and charming” Haslemere in Surrey.

Social Media Links:
 C.R. Berry Wordpress
C.R. Berry Twitter
C.R. Berry Facebook