September 2015 Debut of the Month.
Talent runs in the blood as the granddaughter of John Le Carre makes her debut with this sprawling and fascinating historical thriller, the first in a planned trilogy. Her uncle is of course Nick Harkaway and she displays the same sense of wide screen baroque and wild imagination in a winding tale that unfolds over two separate periods in Barcelona. With echoes of both Dan Brown and Carlos Ruiz Zafon, we find gory murders, mysteries galore, conspiracies, cryptic alphabets and volumes, and bibliomania crowding the pages as book hunter extraordinaire Anna Verco chases down a famous unsolved murder in parallel with the enquiries of Inspector Fabregat, eleven years earlier. Complex, assured, this is a masterful page-turner and a great read. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
An ancient manuscript, an unsolved murder, a burnt chapel and, caught in the middle, a clever young woman unready for the mysteries that await her are all the hallmarks of a great conspiracy thriller but this is no easy-read Dan Brown. Complex and intriguing, the story travels to different times and places weaving a dense web of mystery. It is the first in a trilogy so we can expect more complicated and exciting situations to come. Not for the faint-hearted or those seeking a quick thrill, this is properly a grown-up literary mystery and nicely enthralling to boot. Good stuff.
| Primary Genre | Thriller and Suspense |
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Win a Pair of Tickets to Agatha Christie’s The Hollow at a Venue of Your Choice.
Closing date: 15/10/2026
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 features in the following genres: Thriller and Suspense, eBooks of the Month, Debut Books of the Month, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations, General Fiction
The Serpent Papers is available in Paperback, Hardback
The Serpent Papers was written by Jessica Cornwell and published by Quercus Publishing
The Serpent Papers has 479 pages
Yes it is part of The Serpent Papers Trilogy series
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