Chateau Beyond Time — Michael Tobias

In Chateau Beyond Time, celebrated explorer, author, and filmmaker Michael Tobias draws us into an exquisite kingdom: a sublime refuge with fiercely protected surroundings. This chateau, nestled within an unexpected wilderness in the heart of France, has only been known to artists, philosophers and kings: the exclusive members of a secret society of guardians dating back to the dawn of humanity. Deputy director of the Interpol Wildlife Secretariat Jean-Baptiste Simon is awakened by a phone call in the middle of the night: a one-horned animal has escaped from smugglers on the docks of Antwerp. The next day, an elderly museum gardener is murdered, a horn thrust through his throat. Even more baffling is the nature of the horn. Its DNA profile leaves the forensic team at an utter loss. Meanwhile in London, Martin Olivier, a specialist dealing in many of England's finest estates, with his wife Margaret, a precocious art historian and museum curator, is befuddled by an urgent message from an eccentric uncle, James, whom Martin hasn't seen in years. Martin must come at once to a place he had always been told was simply a remote family farm. He is given a series of cryptic instructions, including a map delivered by a falcon. Martin and Margaret will soon discover that the Olivier family is heir to an ancient lineage of stewardship, and they are plunged into a desperate race to save nothing less than the original Arcadia.