Paperback: Barcelona, Summer 2003.
Three women are sacrificed to an unknown purpose, skin carved with a cryptic alphabet, tongues cut from their mouths. Sent beautiful, sinister letters - clues, or confessions? - Inspector Fabregat cannot decipher the warnings within.
As Barcelona explodes in revelry on the Festival of St Joan, Natalia Hernandez, flower of the National Theatre and Catalan idol, lies broken on the steps of the Cathedral. The city bays for blood, Fabregat chases a shadow-like suspect and signs that whisper of secrets beyond his grasp.
Barcelona, Winter 2014.
Anna Verco - academic, book thief, savant - unearths letters hidden for centuries from a lightning-struck chapel in Mallorca. What they reveal compels her and Fabregat to reignite the Hernandez investigation. Every page she turns conceals a coded message; every street she treads leads her deeper into the labyrinth.
As Fabregat baits her with suspects, and threats darken her steps, Anna hunts her own prey - the book that began it all, a medieval revelation written in the language of witches and alchemists: The Serpent Papers.
Anna believes this book will unlock the mystery. She does not yet know she is the key.
The Serpent Papers (2015) combines the intrigue of The Da Vinci Code with the mysticism of a Carlos Ruiz Zafón novel. The narrative shifts between the 12th century and the present day, using storytelling devices including letters, ancient scribes, complex web of codes, medieval references and mystified former detectives. It is the first book in the gripping Serpent Papers Trilogy series set in Barcelona, Spain.
About the author: Jessica - granddaughter of John le Carré - majored in English at Stanford University. While there, she won a prestigious Angel Art Grant and participated in research projects in Andalusia, New Delhi and Oxford. After graduating, she completed her masters in drama at the Institute of Theatre and the Autonomous University of Barcelona before training with the Catalan theatre company La Fura dels Baus.
Since moving to London, Jessica Cornwell has worked as a runner at Working Title Films, a freelance researcher and a program director for the Santozeum, a start-up museum and art hub based between London and Santorini. She is an Observer Debut Author of the Year for 2015, and has written for The Independent and The Sunday Times.
Jessica was raised with her seven siblings in Ojai, California. The Serpent Papers is her first novel.
Rating: 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment