Barcelona, Summer 2003

Three women are sacrificed to an unknown purpose, skin carved with a cryptic alphabet, tongues cut from their mouths. Inspector Fabregat is sent beautiful, sinister letters – are they clues, or confessions? 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, is discovered 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 drives her to Barcelona to investigate a famous unsolved murder, that of Natalia Hernandez. As police bait 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: The Serpent Papers.