by Kate Mosse
First published 2007
Léonie Vernier travels with her brother to their widowed aunt's estate in Rennes-le-Bains in 1891. The young woman expects a conventional visit, but her aunt proves surprisingly youthful and beautiful. The locals whisper about supernatural forces at work on the property. They believe Léonie's uncle died after calling forth a demon from an ancient Visigoth burial site on the grounds. More than a hundred years later, American graduate student Meredith Martin comes to the same French town. She studies composer Claude Debussy's life for her research. A Tarot card reading in Paris troubles her thoughts, and she carries the same mysterious deck with her. Meredith stays at a grand hotel built where a mountain estate once stood before fire consumed it in 1896. The Tarot cards connect her destiny to Léonie's across the centuries, along with a nineteenth-century musical composition called Sepulchre 1891. Both women face the same supernatural forces that destroyed Léonie's family.
Genres: historical-fiction, fantasy, supernatural, adult-fiction, mystery-thriller, gothic
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, haunting, lyrical, mysterious, suspenseful
Tropes: dual-narrative, family-secrets, reincarnation-connection, supernatural-mystery
Setting: Rennes-le-Bains, France, Paris
Period: 1891, 1896, 20th century, 21st century
572 pages · Paperback · Penguin Publishing Group
Content warnings: death