Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Marie Arendt
Categories
Historical adventure fiction

THE BOOK OF SECRETS

Anna Mazzola

The thrilling new historical novel by bestselling author Anna Mazzola, THE BOOK OF SECRETS - inspired by real events in 17th century Italy

Rome, 1659. Months after the plague has ravaged Rome, men are still dying in unnatural numbers, and rumour has it that their corpses do not decay as they should. The Papal authorities commission prosecutor Stefano Bracchi to investigate, telling him he will need considerable mettle to reach the truth. To the west of the Tiber, Girolama and her female friends are at work, helping other women with childbirths and foretelling their futures. Elsewhere in the city, a young wife, Anna, must find a way to escape her abusive husband. But in a city made by men for men, there are no easy paths out. Stefano's investigation at the Tor di Nona prison will introduce him to horror, magic and an astonishing cast of characters. He will be left wondering if certain deeds should remain forever unpunished... Anna Mazzola is an award-winning and critically acclaimed novelist. Her debut novel, The Unseeing, won an Edgar Allan Poe Award, and her third novel, The Clockwork Girl, was a Sunday Times historical fiction pick for 2022.

Available products
Book Published 2024-03-21 by Orion

Comments

Utterly compelling, brilliant and rage-inducing. THE BOOK OF SECRETS is a fantastically atmospheric evocation of C17th Rome, with all its grime, claustrophobia, injustice and shocking violence against women. The characters are so compelling and richly drawn and the story propels us brilliantly through the thrills and terrors of the trial, to a nail-biting denouement I loved it! Beautiful, elegant, sharp, witty, poignant and intense.

THE BOOK OF SECRETS is a gripping historical thriller where the reader's dilemma is that we are rooting for both sides, the investigator and the women he is hunting. It is a hugely entertaining read but also an important one in an era when women's rights are being called into question. Magnificent.