Novels by Tim Schooley

A historical fiction odyssey across 15th century Europe

  Young Newt’s gift for language turns a curse when he blurts out in Latin about the devil at his parish church. Facing charges of witchery, Newt flees England to work as a translator for his father’s wool business. Newt meets Aisha, a Muslim girl from the Nasrid Kingdom (now southern Spain). Aisha has her own genius for seeing mathematical patterns in nature. The prodigies share a tutor, Peter, who enlists them in his scheme to rescue Arabic books from the Nasrid Kingdom that are threatened by the encroaching army of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand. When warfare and prejudice drive Newt and Aisha apart, they vow to reunite at any cost.

RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2026 History Through Fiction Publishing

Advanced Praise: “When the star elephant of the King Minos Circus vanishes mid-parade in 1974, along with the owner's runaway daughter, a larger unraveling begins. Tim Schooley draws on his own experience as a Ringling Bros. clown to craft a vivid, propulsive novel about loyalty, spectacle, and the cost of holding on too tight. Historical fiction with real sawdust under its nails.” - City Book Review

The King Minos Circus is struggling to survive—until Christos “King” Minos unveils a dazzling new illusion: a vanishing elephant act starring Henrietta, the animal he loves more fiercely than he can admit. But when Henrietta disappears during a parade, the trick becomes something far more dangerous.

Suspicion falls on Minos’s estranged daughter, Randi—an activist who has vowed to free the circus elephants—and on Ainge, the circus’s newest clown, a young man haunted by his father’s rejection after learning he is gay. Minos feels doubly betrayed. But are Randi and Ainge the villians Minos imagines? Their journey across the American West—through small towns, roadside shows, and shifting loyalties—forces them all to confront hard questions about family, freedom, and who truly belongs to whom.

Because in the end, the fate of Henrietta may not belong to the circus at all.