Lloyd Pilling Tosoff's Blog

July 3, 2025

February 1, 2021

Children of Pleiades

Lloyd’s newest work, Children of Pleiades, is a two-part series that begins as an ancient, historical human drama that reflects the superstition and folklore of the people who first populated England’s Salisbury Plain. The first in the series, Rise of the Henge, tells the story of a sacred bloodline with legends of star men, and the struggle between forces of good and evil that defines the human condition.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/life/li...
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Published on February 01, 2021 07:52 Tags: ancient-historical-fiction

April 18, 2020

Glory Bound

Glory Bound is a superbly written chronicle of one man's journey from Europe to the new Canadian Pacific Northwest. The author flawlessly weaves the story over multi-generational characters who endure life altering trials, tribulations, bigotry, poverty and war. It is a fascinating and gripping journey filled with lovable and heroic characters. In today's world of growing xenophobia this novel is a striking reminder of the enduring good that comes from one man's simple decision to find a new home. (Review by Thomas R. Szczesniak, March 4, 2020 from Amazon Kindle)Glory Bound
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Published on April 18, 2020 07:23 Tags: ww2

December 20, 2018

Best Seller does not mean Best Writing

I was on line in a discussion group that contributed to a stream of comments about novel writing. One of the participants said "best seller does not mean best writing." I thought that her words were so true given how the star making machinery works.

It is never about talent alone, nor is it about skill or commitment to doing good work. Looks, status, and most of all who you know and what is currently on the list of subject matter that publishers are looking are the things that open doors. Then the marketing machine goes to work to essentially tell the book buying public what they should read.

I have written for tens of thousand of hours, studied my craft at the university level and have the rich background of life experience to write really good novels. I'm not blowing my own horn (maybe I am) as it is in ratings and reviews that an author has the right to hang his or her hat.

When Kirkus Reviews pick your novel as one of the top 10% of all titles it means that the writing and story are in the stellar category. A compelling Kirkus Review is written on sacred parchment paper because they are the recognized gold standard in the novel scene worldwide. A reader rating that exceeds 4.7 out of 5 stars is the real stuff upon which potential readers should make their decision to pick a novel.

Escape From Konigsberg
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Published on December 20, 2018 09:18 Tags: novels

August 2, 2018

The Horrors of War

When we lived in White Rock in 2016 our neighbor was of German descent and had grandparents who fled Konigsberg in 1944 when Allied bombers leveled the 700-year-old medieval city. He shared this photo with me.

Like Walter Heinrich's family in my novel Escape From Konigsberg, his was one of countless one's that fled the destruction of the city they had grown up in. Tens of thousands of men, women and children died with their blood stained on the ice and snow trying to escape with their lives. The brutal Red Army eventually occupied their city, murdering and raping tens of thousands of women and executing their husbands and children. This was one of the most terrible atrocities of any war in history.

I was able to recount such true stories because I met a man upon which I molded my main character Walter, who actually courageously escaped with his two sisters, 6 and 10 on the top of a coal train in the bitter cold of the Prussian winter.

The reviewer at Kirkus said "Tosoff’s research is admirably meticulous—his mastery of the geopolitical currents of the day, including the details of European geography, is indisputable. He captures the impossible predicament of so many Germans at the time—loyal to their native land but also left at the mercy of an insanely criminal regime."

I worked so hard for almost five years to write what is now being lauded as a "beautifully depicted" novel, albeit one that does not hold back many gruesome details of a story few will ever know about. Let the truth about the persecution of the German people be known by helping to making this novel a best seller. People of all race, creed and color are sacred and no one should ever be terrorized by the brutality of war.

Escape From Konisgberg stands as a reminder of the human cost when those who subscribe to the evils of murder cloaked under the convenient political justification of war, without conscience ask our young men and women to pull the trigger. Ask my 95-year-old father who served as a special forces commando trained to kill with his bare hands what he thinks of war and he will tell you "It's useless and never changes anything."

Read my novel and be moved in its sensitive story of love and hope counterpointed by the brutal truth of loss that defines the futility of war.

This novel will allow you to feel the truth of your own life path of love, loss and hope that defines the human condition. I invite you to read it.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/…/longe...

#LloydTosoffAuthor
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Published on August 02, 2018 09:20 Tags: coming-of-age, kirkus-reviews, love-loss-and-hope, wwii

July 27, 2018

Escape from Konigsberg

This epic novel has been featured in the New York Review of Books and the compelling Kirkus Review made the top Indy featured reviews in the July Kirkus Magazine. Readers are touched by this story that pits the indomitable human spirit against the horrors of war with parallels drawn to Dr. Zhivago and one avid novel reader kindly saying "Think Hemingway."

I was inspired to write the novel after meeting an elderly man whose story of escaping the brutal Red Army after his mother was killed touched me deeply. His father was a POW since the start of WWII and his mother who along with countless other women was murdered by Soviet soldiers who overran the 700-year-old city that was destroyed to the ground by Allied bombing raids on August 26, 27 of 1944.

The 14-year-old boy summoned the courage to escape on one of the last coal trains out of Konigsberg in the midst of the harsh East Prussian winter along with his two sisters aged 6 and 10. Kirkus Reviews has lauded this novel with quotes such as "beautifully depicted", "Tosoff's research is admirably meticulous" and "He captures the impossible predicament of so many Germans at the time-loyal to their native land but also left at the mercy of an insanely criminal regime."

Find out for yourself why Escape from Konigsberg is the best kept secret of 2018 so far.

Watch for it in the August edition of Kirkus aimed at film executives and other book industry professionals. Escape From Konigsberg
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Published on July 27, 2018 07:36 Tags: coming-of-age, kirkus-reviews, love-loss-and-hope, wwii

June 10, 2018

Vanquished - #2 in the Ian MacLeod Series

Coming in summer 2018. My editor Karen just finished the final edit and polish of Volume 2 of the Ian MacLeod Thriller series. It’s grueling work combing through a 527 page novel. This is the best one yet. Here’s the plot line. “Scotland Yard and the Home Office are rife with corruption at the highest levels in this follow up to Point of Return. Political intrigue and the sexual secrets of the UK's most powerful men are interwoven into a complex plot driven by a conspiracy contrived to set MacLeod up for retribution by mobsters Ascot and McMurphy. Being in possession of mob money catches up with MacLeod and he is extradited back to the UK after he and Kyla help Natasha, a young victim of the sex trade, kick her heroin addiction at a healing center on the Cayman Islands that MacLeod funded with pilfered mob money.

After learning of her benefactor's arrest, Natasha remains in London instead of returning home to Minsk and crosses paths with her former pimp.
A sub-plot of reprisal and revenge against those who forced her into the world of sex trafficking counterpoints against the backdrop of MacLeod's plight.

Interrogated by Scotland Yard and subsequently released back on the street, MacLeod is reunited with Kyla and Nigel Cambridge who brokers a deal that requires MacLeod to find the mob’s Highland bunker to save him from going to prison.

An exposé that delves into the sex trade on the seedy streets of East London, and offers a glimpse into the life of exotic call girl Justine Prothumo, reverberates all the way up to the Home Office. Vanquished is guaranteed to continue the Bond-like swagger of this gripping series and promises to keep readers on the edge of their seats and in wait of the next in the series, Highland Sanction.”
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Published on June 10, 2018 16:18 Tags: collusion, conspiracy, corruption, political-intrigue, sex

May 26, 2018

Escape from Konigsberg

I am pleased to announce the release of my latest novel, "Escape from Konigsberg", which is set in Northern Europe during the last days of WWII and based on true events including one man's courageous tale of survival. This is the second edition of a work that has taken five years to find its final form, receiving early acclaim including a compelling Kirkus Review that immediately sparked the attention of the New York Review of Books which will feature it in a June edition.

Reviews;

"It is the mark of an extraordinary craftsman to engage both the 'head and the heart' of your readers" - Susan McNeal Velasquez, Author

"Tosoff’s research is admirably meticulous—his mastery of the geopolitical currents of the day, including the details of European geography, is indisputable. He captures the impossible predicament of so many Germans at the time—loyal to their native land but also left at the mercy of an insanely criminal regime." - Kirkus Reviews

"..." beautifully depicted by Tosoff "... "prose is lucid and crisp ." - Kirkus Reviews

"A fascinating read, worthy of the Silver Screen, another Doctor Zhivago" - David Worrell, Screenwriter


The Kirkus Review can be read by clicking the attached link. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...

Although the "Historical Fiction" aspects of the story are presented without censoring the graphic brutality of the Red Army or the terrible destruction of the Allied bombing campaign, the soul of the story is in the emotionally charged coming of age of the novel's protagonist Walter Heinrich. As an author I reached deeply into my own life experience to tell this story with both forthright boldness and, where the situation between characters called for it, sensitivity to the gentler human sentiments.

This is a part of history that few know of and that to my knowledge has not been told before. In the spring of 2013 I was waiting in the coffee room of a car dealership when an elderly gentleman sat down across from me. We broke the ice and the conversation turned to where he was from. When he said he was from Konigsberg I drew a blank. "Where is that?" I asked. He told me it no longer existed as it was renamed Kaliningrad after Stalin was awarded the ice free Baltic port after the war had ended. Forced into fleeing from the brutality of the Soviet Red Army at 14 he jumped aboard what he said was most certainly one of the last coal trains to Berlin with his two sisters 6 and 10. His mother had died, the circumstances of which no doubt arose from the brutality that was foisted upon the citizens of the cultured 700-year-old medieval city. His father, a munitions expert was incarcerated in a war camp, so without the support of an adult he bravely took charge of the survival of himself and his two sisters. When I asked whether they escaped in a boxcar he replied indignantly, "No, on top of the coal in the frigid winter." Deeply moved by his story I would like to have known more about him but time ran out and therefore I was left with the job of researching extensively and using my writer's imagination to develop an engaging and complex plot.

This epic tale follows the heroic actions of a young man whose courage and intelligence saves the lives of what is left of his family during their struggle to survive the final days of WWII.

Both my wife Karen--who is also my editor--and I are extremely proud of this novel that finds the heart of the indomitable human spirit and tells a story of love, loss and hope. I invite you to order and read the novel and hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

The novel is available in paperback at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1985067005 on ebook at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D6CDQG8 and on Goodreads.

Regards,


Lloyd Tosoff, Author
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Published on May 26, 2018 06:51 Tags: coming-of-age, historical-fiction, kirkus-reviews, war

February 2, 2018

Fans of Ian Fleming Rejoice Again

The manuscript for the second installment of the Ian MacLeod Action Thriller Series "Vanquished" is now in final edit and polish with the draft in the hands of my feedback circle and editor.

At 348 pages and 96,000 words, the manuscript is my best work yet which is a big achievement given that the first volume, Point of Return received a great Kirkus Review as well as two other major book reviews that gave it top marks. This installment expands the Scottish mob theme of the series to include the infamous Brays who control crime and prostitution on the streets of London. The plot for Vanquished is complex, weaving a twisting turning story that threads into it an important and unexpected sub-plot that sparks a gangland turf war between the Brays and the Glaswegians on the streets of East London. Exposing the depraved nature of the world-wide sex trade my protagonist MacLeod is thrown into a web of deceit that places him in grave danger. Accountant Ian MacLeod, former Scotland Yard profiler Kyla Fraser and former MI5 spy Nigel Cambridge unveil a conspiracy as they become caught up in a Pandora's Box whose depths contain the ubiquitous nature of political corruption that plagues our society at the highest levels.

Vanquished maintains the high action thriller character of the first novel, with lots of gripping suspense as they unravel the location of mob operations in what becomes known as the Highland bunker. However, this novel delves much deeper into the raw underbelly of human interaction; namely the misuse of power and sexuality that drives the male psyche to do all manner of nefarious deeds.

While it has a vivid, descriptive narrative and in-depth character development, not to mention lots of murder and mayhem, it offers unique insights into the psychology we all share in a way that makes the novel very relatable. As MacLeod strives for justice while surrounded by mob violence in this good against evil story, readers will be on the edge of their seat from the opening scenes to the climax and satisfying ending, which is a hallmark of this Bond-like series. The chapter ending cliffhangers, the centerpiece of my writing style, will keep pages turning and leave the reader rooting for MacLeod and his friends as they personify the novel's title.

While waiting for Vanquished on May 6, 2018, I invite you to get a copy of the first installment, Point of Return. You will love its "Bond-like swagger."

Buy Point of Return Now on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Point-Return-M...
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Published on February 02, 2018 16:00 Tags: action-thiller

January 3, 2018

Fans of Ian Fleming Rejoice

Fans of Ian Fleming will rejoice!
Published on Published onJanuary 3, 2018
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Praise for Lloyd Tosoff's upcoming Novel Series

Great review for Point of Return

Fans of Ian Fleming will rejoice!

ByLiterary Titanon December 18, 2017

Format: Paperback

Point of Return by Lloyd Tosoff is an action thriller set in Great Britain. The story centers on a struggling, naive accountant Ian MacLeod and his entanglement with a murder conspiracy concocted by the Glaswegian underworld. He doesn’t become involved by choice because it is his friends who choose to mess with the Glasgow mob and their violent ways. He left the city, but after becoming an accountant, being in a loveless marriage, and losing his job, he ends up going back. He meets an old friend and a stranger when he arrives, and the mystery and conflict begin to envelop him as he realizes he has to fight for his life or lose it.

This novel is part of a “double novel” series, but Point of Return stands on its own as a snappy thriller that follows Ian Fleming’s Bond series. The first chapter begins with MacLeod still in Glasgow and his decision to leave the city, and then we jump eleven years into the future to when the real action starts, and the story picks up from there.

In many ways, Tosoff follows the regular beats for the unsuspecting hero to be swept up into a conspiracy and for a thriller, this trope is not a particularly unusual one. The real grit of Tosoff is how he chooses to have MacLeod deal with his past and personal connection to Glasgow instead. A victim of abuse at the hands of a violent stepfather, his inner demons come through in small bits and shapes his character. The reader is gradually introduced to these pieces of MacLeod’s past, and for the reader, it helps invest more of themselves in the narrative and our precarious hero.

The atmosphere and pacing do wonders for this book, which is critical for a thriller and Tosoff manages all of these elements quite well. The few times that the novel does become predictable it’s uniquely colored by MacLeod’s past struggles and how he faces them. I hope that his past conflicts come to a better resolution in the sequel, Vanquished, which takes place immediately following this novel, because I can’t wait to see what happens.

This novel is a perfect fit for fans of crime and spy thrillers, and fans of Ian Fleming may find a welcome new home among Tosoff’s pages.

New edition of Point of Return, the first installment of the Ian MacLeod Action Thriller Series, will be released on Amazon/Kindle on February 6, 2018

http://lloydtosoff.com/
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Published on January 03, 2018 12:17 Tags: ian-fleming