FICTION...

 

Following first degrees in psychology and pure science, Jo went on to gain a PhD by research at the University of Bristol, specialising in behavioural psychology and brain physiology. She worked for seven years as a research associate/lecturer, working on the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Jo has twenty research publications in academic journals from that period. She then went on to become a full time lecturer in further and higher education, writing and delivering training materials for teachers in addition to lecturing work. She still lectures in brain physiology for the Open University, and works part time as a freelance educational consultant, writing and delivering training courses for teachers.

 

Jo was winner of the Daily Telegraph Travel writing award 2008, and has had short stories published in Mslexia magazine and the recent Bookshed anthology, ‘Short Fuses’.

 

The Tyranny of the Blood was voted the most popular adult fantasy of the year on the Arts Council sponsored website YouWriteOn, and was a runner-up in the all-genre 2008 YWO book of the year awards.  The novel went on to win an  ‘Apprenticeship in Fiction’ award (www.adventuresinfiction.co.uk) supported by the Arts Council and a grant from the Oppenheimer John-Downes Memorial Trust.

 

Visit Jo's website at www.joreed.co.uk.

 

"Compelling and intense, this novel draws you into a dark world of danger and power play." Liz Williams, award-winning science fiction author

 

The Tyranny of the Blood

 

In fourth century Scotland, a powerful inbred society with superhuman power and hereditary madness, known as ‘The Family’, has been trying for centuries to breed a child with the ability to control time itself.

 

The blood is all that matters; the unfit are slaughtered to achieve their twisted goal.  When Rendail takes over leadership of the Family from his father, he seems doomed to perpetuate his father’s mistakes…until a chance encounter with an enigmatic stranger opens his eyes.

 

When Rendail’s firstborn develops the long awaited gift, a catastrophic chain of events is cast into motion that threatens the very future of mankind.

 

The Tyranny of the Blood, although designed to work as a standalone novel, also acts as the first of a dark trilogy spanning the development of a genetically engineered society spanning from the first century to present day.