1891. Seventeen-year-old Leonie Vernier and her brother abandon Paris for the sanctuary of their aunt's isolated country house near Carcassonne, the Domaine de la Cade. But in the nearby woods, Leonie stumbles across a ruined sepulchre - and a timeless mystery whose traces are written in blood. 2007. Meredith Martin arrives at the Domaine de la Cade as part of her research for a biography she's writing. But Meredith is also seeking the key to her own complex legacy and soon becomes immersed in the story of a tragic love, a missing girl, a unique deck of tarot cards, an unquiet soul and the strange events of one cataclysmic night more than a century ago...

Reviews

"a historical thriller for the Sex and the City generation" SUNDAY TIMES

"A great read...from one of Britain's most talented writers" YORK PRESS

'Mosse's gifts for historical fiction are considerable ... Mosse does what good popular historical novelists do best - make the past enticingly otherworldly, while also claiming it as our own.'
Emma Hagestadt, INDEPENDENT

'ghosts, duels, murders, ill-fated love and conspiracy...addictively readable' Eithne Farry, DAILY MAIL

'The best of the Brits...a ghoul thriller...Where Mosse really wins is in the writing department. She's the real role model there.' THE MIRROR

Author Biography

Kate Mosse is the author of two non-fiction books and three novels, including the multi-million-selling international No 1 bestseller, LABYRINTH. The Co-Founder & Honorary Director of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, Kate is also a guest presenter and reviewer for many TV and radio arts programmes. In 2006 she was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University of Chichester. Kate lives with her family in West Sussex and Carcassonne.