When Music—the ageless, androgynous being beside humanity—dies in a London flat, songs vanish and instruments are downtitled to “old-world communicative devices.” Tobias Tam Staghorn, an academic in Birmingham, follows a perilous pattern through relics, allies, and stories that might call back what was erased—if he can decide what he’s truly trying to save.
Music has died in a London flat, and the world wakes to a precise silence. Songs are gone. Instruments are “old-world communicative devices.” A few can still sense the hush where melody used to be.
Tobias Tam Staghorn, thirty-two, Associate Professor at Birmingham University, should be cataloguing relics. Instead he follows a pattern through parlour guitars, a singing “telephone desk,” and hand-drums that once called the spirits—across Barcelona auction rooms, Midlands canals and lecture halls, and snug Thames-side pubs—with Marion of Putney, the ghost of her beloved saxman, Stevie and Daisy, restorer Lily and her serene assistant Troy, and a guarded trauma doctor.
As institutions circle and Music flickers at the edge of forgetting, Tobias must choose what he’s truly trying to save: a field, a career, or the part of the human heart that hums. If he is wrong, the world stays orderly and silent; if he is right, what will it cost to reopen the door?
Behind the Pages
Over the years, I’ve had more story ideas than I can count—some passing through quickly, others lingering for tea. A few even came with dramatic entrances and impossible demands. But none of them ever made it onto paper. Not even a line. Not even a note on the back of a napkin.
Until Tobias & Stuart.
I’ve always been drawn to MM romance and speculative fantasy, and since this was my first novel, I thought I’d start with something I knew well—academic life. It’s a world full of eccentric characters, strange rituals, and an endless supply of questions without clear answers. In its own way, academia already feels a bit fantastical. My challenge was to combine all three into one story.
Tobias & Stuart became the kind of book I wanted to read myself: an MM romance that doesn’t just flutter hearts but nudges the mind awake. At its centre is Tobias, an academic who’s built a perfectly sensible life for himself… until he hasn’t. His journey is one of confronting emptiness, finding courage in vulnerability, and slowly becoming the truest version of himself—all while the world threatens to unravel around him.
It’s a story about love, friendship, and the delightful absurdity of being human. Those small, stubborn things that—when you really think about it—might just be what saves the world.
I hope you’ll come along for the journey with Tobias and Stuart, and of course with Music, Death, and Time, who have a way of turning everything upside down just when you think you’ve figured it out.
Jern Tonkoi
Reader praise
“I enjoyed this as a opening chapter and am excited to read more in this universe. This was a strong start to the Tobias & Stuart series, it had that fantasy romance element that I was looking for and was engaged with what was happening. The characters had that overall feel that I was wanting and enjoyed the concept. Jern Tonkoi wrote this well and was engaged from the first page.”
“Wow! I can't imagine a world without music, it's so much a part of my life. Music is personified in this version of reality and they pass away and with them all knowledge of music disappears. Tobias is a professor at Birmingham University and is studying and collecting what he terms sounding communication devices. These devices are broken musical instruments that no longer have names or meaning. As Tobias and his unusual group of associates slowly start to piece together the sounds the devices make, music begins to return, but only to a select few who can hear. A very interesting and powerful take on music and the impact it has on our lives.”
“This is one of those quiet, slow-building stories that lingers long after the last page. At first, not much seems to be happening — Tonkoi spends time layering context, history, and atmosphere — but by the end, the emotional weight really hits. It’s lyrical, thoughtful, and deeply sentimental in a way that stayed with me.”
