Eva St. John is one of several pen names used by author Liz Hurley. Based in Cornwall now, Liz was born and brought up in Norwich, and in her latest series of books, the Norwich Map Runner series, she returns to her roots.
Liz started Mudlark’s Press in 2016 to publish walking guides, bringing the beauty of Cornwall to visitors at the bookshop her husband, Stephen, and Liz ran in Mevagissey. Since those walking guides, she’s branched into fiction across various genres, each with its own unique world. To keep things simple for her readers, she created different pen names for each series.
As Eva St John, Liz has previously written the Quantum Curators series, a collection of science fiction novels that blend time travel, alternate histories, and thrilling adventures. In her new Norwich Map Runners series, Eva has put together a magical cataclysm that fuses centuries of Norwich maps together, pulling people forward through time so that Tudor farmers, Victorian housemaids and Georgian matrons all wake up in the present day, disoriented and afraid. Only buildings old enough to appear on enough historical maps survive. Real Norwich locations anchor the fantasy: the Guildhall, Elm Hill, the Castle, the old city walls, Bank Plain, the Great Hospital and the Cathedral. Real historical figures appear too, including Julian of Norwich. Add in a vicious serial killer, a rookie detective, a cast of characters from different eras, magic and the ability to ‘map run’ (navigate between various historical times) and you have a gripping storyline.
Eva’s storytelling is reminiscent of the adventurous spirit found in works by Genevieve Cogman and the wit of Terry Pratchett, offering readers a captivating journey through time and parallel worlds.
Liz has also written the charming Hiverton Sisters series, a romance and family drama set in the British Countryside, under her own Liz Hurley name, and the Golden Murder Mysteries, a series of cosy crime novels set in the picturesque Cornish fishing village of Golden, as Anna Penrose.