A stunning debut novel of intrigue, conspiracy and murder set in London and Italy in 1805

Beneath the streets of Lucca, a citystate in Tuscany, lie archives extant since the ninth century AD and still intact today. Above, in the cathedral of San Martino, hangs the Volto Santo, the living likeness of Christ carved by Nicodemus himself, and within the Volto Santo are the relics which have drawn pilgrims to the city for the past millennium and given it a prosperity and prestige few other places have achieved.

What would happen if those relics were not there at all, but lay hidden in a small London church a thousand miles away? What would happen when Napoleon and his sister demanded them as their rights, part of the legacy of Lucca, which they had claimed as their own?

Mabel Flinchurst and missing-persons-finder Whilbert Stroop are about to find out. The first of a series of historical mysteries, Guardians of the Key (paperback December 2006) sets out to unveil the secrets of five hundred years of history, moving between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries, and sets its protagonists on a collision course with several murders, a spectacular suicide, and a fire which rages through the streets of London.

From the olive groves and silk mills of Lucca, to the mortuaries and back streets of London, Guardians takes us on a breakneck journey through treason, arson, and murder.

If you enjoyed Guardians, look out for the second in the series, published next year by Headline. Astonishment Hall and Eden await…

 
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