“Sensual, witty and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, set forth in sparkling prose and inhabited by characters well-worth getting to know. Wunderbar!” – Kirkus, starred review
In this action-packed sequel to City of Dark Magic, we find musicologist Sarah Weston in Vienna in search of a cure for her friend Pollina, who is now gravely ill and who may not have much time left. Meanwhile, Nicolas Pertusato, in London in search of an ancient alchemical cure for the girl, discovers an old enemy is one step ahead of him. In Prague, Prince Max tries to unravel the strange reappearance of a long dead saint while being pursued by a seductive red-headed historian with dark motives of her own.
In the city of Beethoven, Mozart, and Freud, Sarah becomes the target in a deadly web of intrigue that involves a scientist on the run, stolen art, seductive pastries, a few surprises from long-dead alchemists, a distractingly attractive horseman who’s more than a little bloodthirsty, and a trail of secrets and lies. But nothing will be more dangerous than the brilliant and vindictive villain who seeks to bend time itself. Sarah must travel deep into an ancient mystery to save the people she loves.
Prague: once the city of alchemists, astronomers, hell fires, heretics, and Kremlin crackdowns, now the destination of every beer-loving kid in a backpack… and one deadly ex-CIA agent with a secret to keep. Music student Sarah Weston has no idea how dangerous and weird her life is about to get when she accepts an unexpected invitation to spend the summer at Prague Castle doing research for a historic noble family’s private museum. Prague is a threshold, she’s warned, between the life of good and… the other. Sarah has no patience for either superstition or royalty, and no interest in Cold War fallout. But soon after she arrives in the ancient city, Sarah learns her predecessor may have been murdered, and finds herself at the center of escalating and dangerous mysteries spanning several centuries. Who is killing off the academics at the museum? What secrets of time travel was a sixteenth century alchemist hiding? Who was Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved? Can the handsome young heir to the fortune be trusted? What Communist-era intrigue is a prominent and powerful American willing to kill to cover up? Do hell portals really exist? In this rollicking and sexy nonstop caper, a kickass new heroine who’s brilliant and uninhibited in every way makes her debut, plunging headlong into the long and mysterious history of the City of Dark Magic…