First published 2026
Paris, 1785. The city's oldest cemetery has grown so full that its stench poisons the air for blocks around. Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young engineer from the provinces, arrives with orders from the king to tear it down completely. Baratte sees the job as perfect for a rational man like himself. He wants to sweep away the accumulated burden of the past. But as he begins his work, something changes. The cemetery seems to resist him. The people who live nearby watch him with suspicion. Baratte starts to worry that destroying this place of the dead might lead to his own destruction. What began as a straightforward assignment becomes something far more dangerous. Baratte must decide whether to complete his mission or save himself.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, mystery, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, man-vs-society
Setting: Paris, France
Period: 1785
352 pages · Paperback · Hodder & Stoughton