Author(s): Kate Mosse

General Fiction

From the author of the New York Timesa bestselling novel "Labyrinth" comes another haunting tale of secrets, murder, and the occult set in both nineteenth-century and twenty-first-century France. I n 1891, young LA(c)onie Vernier and her brother Anatole arrive in the beautiful town of Rennes-les-Bains, in southwest France. Theyave come at the invitation of their widowed aunt, whose mountain estate, Domain de la Cade, is famous in the region. But it soon becomes clear that their aunt Isoldeaand the Domainaare not what LA(c)onie had imagined. The villagers claim that Isoldeas late husband died after summoning a demon from the old Visigoth sepulchre high on the mountainside. A book from the Domainas cavernous library describes the strange tarot pack that mysteriously disappeared following the uncleas death. But while LA(c)onie delves deeper into the ancient mysteries of the Domain, a different evil stalks her familyaone which may explain why LA(c)onie and Anatole were invited to the sinister Domain in the first place. More than a century later, Meredith Martin, an American graduate student, arrives in France to study the life of Claude Debussy, the nineteenth century French composer. In Rennesles- Bains, Meredith checks into a grand old hotelathe Domain de la Cade. Something about the hotel feels eerily familiar, and strange dreams and visions begin to haunt Meredithas waking hours. A chance encounter leads her to a pack of tarot cards painted by LA(c)onie Vernier, which may hold the key to this twenty-first century Americanas fate . . . just as they did to the fate of LA(c)onie Vernier more than a century earlier.