I have read and enjoyed your book “Fallen Angels” but was a bit taken a back to find a simple error of observation of the new moon. It is a fact that the new moon rises in the East (everything does) but it does so just after the sun so we cannot see it. We can only see it in the early evening, setting in the West, just after the sun has set as otherwise the sun is too bright. So a Sickle moon cannot shine in the night as when it becomes visible it is setting. The only other sickle moon is the old moon and that rises (in the EAST) just before dawn so is not visible very long.
Now on page 301 you have “A sickle moon of brilliant clarity was rising in the North” and “Campion was looking at the stars” – so it was night; so this sickle moon is rising in the wrong place and at the wrong time. Further on page 313 you have written “it was a clear night, the strs bright …the sickle moon rising” so the same mistake again.
Forgive me burdening you with this but it is a bee in my bonnet. It is surprising how many authors check all sorts of facts, but seem not to worry about little astronomical details!
Barry Landy