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The life and death of Benjamin Brash
Harry Potter, Twilight, Lord of the Rings and Avatar have all shown our fascination in exploring other worlds. Now Egle Skei takes us into the spirit world to meet ghosts, angels and demons. We meet cheeky, intelligent poltergeists, mournful white ladies, forgetful gengangers and many more spiritual characters, not in a scary, horror story but in an age-old story of love across a divide.

From the feuding families of Romeo and Juliet to love between races, cultures, and religions, love’s capacity to unite and to divide has long intrigued authors and readers. Ms Skei, thoughtfully and humorously, explores potentially the greatest divide love must try to span, that between life and death. But as love grows so does hate and fear, threatening both the spiritual and physical worlds.

‘Can a man truly fall in love with a woman who he didn’t meet until 40 years after her death?’ and ‘What would be the impact if he did?’ These two questions had never crossed the sceptical mind of Benjamin Brash but as events unfolded the answers would not only fundamentally change his life but also threaten the fine thread that binds together the human and spiritual worlds. The life and death of Benjamin Brash is the first book in a series of four (Walls of Welkin) written by Egle Skei. The series follows the adventures of a young, feisty poltergeist called Steph and her contact in the living world, a Scottish author called Benjamin Brash. The series is unusual in that it presents ghosts and the spiritual world not in the traditional scary way but as real characters with real personalities. The first book in the series was published early in 2012 by Grosvenor House Publishing. It is anticipated that the second book will be available in the summer of 2012 with the last 2 books being published in late 2012/2013.

The life and death of Benjamin Brash - Synopsis
The novel is the first in a series of four and tells the story of a young writer who decides to move to Mainland in the Shetland Islands, to try to cope with the loss of his parents who died in a car accident. Benjamin was the driver when his parents died. He feels unhappy and depressed and has chosen to live alone. The house he has bought has been empty for many years and Benjamin knows nothing about the previous owners. Soon after he moves he sees that strange things have started to happen. He never finds things where he leaves them and a strange drip-drip starts in the bathroom.

The house has a dramatic history. Over 50 years before a young woman died and her ghost is still in the house. Yoseline refused to go to the light because she believes that she has to find something in the house. Being an old ghost, she cannot remember things from her human life. She is always sad and unhappy. She is afraid of contacting humans, though she knows that humans can help her to find what she is looking for. She has another ghost with her, a young contemporaneous ghost, a poltergeist named Steph. Steph is a vibrant, intelligent ghost who has to help Yoseline interact with humans.

It isn’t long before Yoseline starts to interact with Benjamin, but he in turn refuses to believe in the existence of a spiritual world. Slowly Benjamin sees that death is like life, it has to be lived and accepted. Yoseline’s feelings towards Benjamin turn into love, and strangely he feels the same for her. But love between a human and a ghost is not acceptable among spiritual beings. The world of spirits sees that human feelings are much stronger than they thought and the relationship provokes anger among evil spirits, mostly demons.

The demons worry that the relationship between Benjamin and Yoseline gives hope for humankind. Steph, the poltergeist, helps the ghosts to understand how important it is for humanity to care for each other. If there is such a great love that can make a man fall in love with a ghost, then there is hope for ghosts too. The demons declare war against the ghosts when they refuse to cooperate with them. Ghosts accept the challenge, but they know that they cannot fight the demons easily. Benjamin finds what Yoseline is looking for but ‘dies’ by the hand of a hit man sent by Yoseline’s husband.

The book presents the world of the ghosts, the different level of spirits and how they interact with each other and it shows how ghosts see life among humans and how they live their deathly life by their rules and hierarchies. It has a mix of humour and seriousness about life and death. The idea was not to write a horror novel, but to create a world of spirits with its own rules, traditions and culture.

Book 2 - The Search for Quayltons - Synopsis
The Search for Quayltons is the second book of four books in the series about Steph and Benjamin Brash. Two years have passed and Benjamin is now used to life with Steph. Steph continues to fight for the rights of poltergeists and ghosts and she has started the first ghostly agency to solve mysteries in the ghostly world. One day she gets a visit from an angel of death who asks the agency to find a revenant who is wandering around. A revenant is a ghost who goes around hoping to find and kill the person who, in life, murdered him. Steph accepts the case and her ghostly agents start the search. The angel of death believes that the revenant might kill an innocent person. At the same time a research radiologist, Dr. Rupert Finn, is murdered in his office at University of Cambridge and the object of his research, a radiological helmet that can be used by doctors to diagnose different illnesses, has been stolen.

In London a famous researcher in Parapsychological studies, Dr. Margera Jones, is in a coma after a fall from a window. The two cases are linked and the investigator Fiona Khan from Cambridge police believes that someone is going around killing researchers. Fiona Khan is a determined, controlling investigator. Her determination and ambition to solve the case soon brings her into contact with Benjamin Brash who knows Margera Jones from before. Fiona Khan instincts are not the best ones and soon Benjamin sees himself being accused of murder and attempted murder.

The book presents the struggle for both humans and ghosts to keep the balance between life and death. The two worlds are each other’s reflection and they need to be kept apart. The book keeps the mix of humour and seriousness from the first book. It also expands the world of ghosts, presenting more insights into the world of spirits and its culture.

Book 3 - The Shade of Life - Synopsis
The Shade of Life is the third book in the series. Meena is the first poltergeist to be reborn into the world of the living. She is a special ghost not only because she has the chance of reincarnation, but also because she is Steph’s best ghostly friend. Meena is happy with her new future life and looking forward to the moment of her rebirth. But Meena doesn’t show up at the magical moment of life and a child is stillborn. Steph is put on the case to try to find out why Meena disappeared. Benjamin gets a visit from his French editor, Vonna Chennot. She convinces Benjamin to take a holiday in France, at her country house near Versailles. But as soon Benjamin goes inside her house he feels that odd things are happening. It seems that Vonna is not the person she says she is. The search for Meena takes Steph to France and soon she understands that high level ghosts have great power in France making the living death of French poltergeists very difficult.

Benjamin sees himself involved in a plot created by the demons to find a way into the world of the living, and he gets help from the most powerful white lady in France, the ghost of Marie Antoinette. She is the key to the plot, and innocent of the fact that she is being used by evil angels, the demons, For Marie Antoinette has a beautiful new crown, but to the demons and the angels the shining dark object is the way to the lively world, it is the radiological helmet, known by the ghosts as the phantom crown, first introduced in book 2.

The only way to stop the demons from taking control over the world is to get the helmet and for that the ghosts need Benjamin’s help. Benjamin again takes possession of the helmet only to find that someone close to him is really a demon. The demon possesses both Benjamin and the helmet and finds the gate way to Humanity. It seems that all is lost.

Book 4 - At The Gates of Welkin - Synopsis
At The Gates of Welkin is the fourth and final book. The demons have finally found a way to break into the first sphere of Heaven, the world of the Archangels and Angels of Death. The demons take control forcing the angels to leave the place and go down to Earth to live in exile. The main aim of the demons is not just to take over the angels, but also to take over humanity, but for that they have to control the four spheres of Heaven. They want to reach the fourth sphere, known to humans as Heaven, but known in the spiritual world as Welkin, where the mind of every dead human lives in peace. The angels know that the only way to spare humanity is to protect love whilst getting help from ghosts. The demons provoke chaos on Earth, making the leaders of the world mistrust each other. A wave of rage and hate takes over humanity and families and friends start to fight each other. Steph and Benjamin see the gravity of the events. Ghosts are the only ones able to fight the demons. Once again the worlds of the living and of the dead come together to fight evil. First humans have to learn to fight the inner feelings that corrupt humanity.

The book brings the reader near to the vulnerable heart of humanity, the fears that live inside every human. The book gives an insight into different cultures, including those where death is seen as a natural event in life. Steph and her friends take the reader to places where ghosts from different nations are willing to sacrifice their ghostly existence in order to help. In the end of the reader gets a surprise as the destinies of Steph and Benjamin are decided.

About the Author - Egle Skei
Having been born and raised in Brazil, Egle is a native Portuguese speaker and, after more than 20 years living and working as a nurse in Norway, her Norwegian is practically perfect. Despite this she chose to write The Life and Death of Benjamin Brash in English as she saw English as the true language of literature. In addition she saw that the richness and depth of British history and the British love of ghosts stories and spiritual beings made it a perfect location for the book. Writing in her third language has given Egle’s writing a clarity and directness that ensures that the story is truly believable and that the characters, both human and spiritual come alive to the reader.