Author Description

What happens when the goddess of death and rebirth plays matchmaker? Her father always told her she'd meet her knight in shining armor. Maggie just didn't think he'd be an actual fourteenth century knight. Resurrected from 1375 to 1875, Sir James MacArthur has to find a way to survive in a world he little understands while trying to save Maggie, the damsel-in-distress who has won his heart. Julie Murphy expertly blends history, romance, and humor in her new novel, Western Knight. In 1875, in the woods near a horse farm in Kentucky, Magnolia, "Maggie," Bathhurst meets the knight her deceased father had promised to her. Hell-bent and running from her stepfather, she trips over her cavalier's bullet-riddled body that is floating in a shallow ditch. At the same time in 1375, the son of an English traitor to the crown, Sir James MacArthur is trying to save his adopted sister from an arranged marriage to a man who beats women. In the escape, the Morrigan, the Gaelic goddess of battle, death and resurrection, rearranges "Mac's" life. All his days faithful to his knight's pledge, the Morrigan decides that Mac's life is worth redeeming, and so Mac is back, but in the dead body of the spoiled, rich, criminal son of the Pig King of Cincinnati. Maggie knows the body as the notorious Randolph, "Randy," McMillian, con-man, thief, possible murderer, ladies' man. For Mac, this new body doesn't have a mass of angry, burn scars for a groin. For the first time since the age of five, Mac discovers that he has a, "flagship," that works. He wants to float it with Maggie. Can a 14th century knight find love with a 19th century woman?