Guardians of the Key

by Clio Gray (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2008

  $12.21

  Lucca, City State for hundreds of years, keeper of secrets and relics, possessor of the Holy Face of Christ, has Napoleon's army at its gates, the emperor having declared himself King of All Italy.

  
  
  

  A continent away in Bexleyheath, Mabel Flinchurst gazes down from her window upon the Advent Fair. With all the hustle and bustle she doesn't see the pilgrim walk into the church of St Anthony's across the square, and slit his own throat. But Lucca and this suicide are strands from the same rope, a rope that is being wound unseen about Mabel, ready to rip her from her cosy world.

  
  
  

  When Mabel's friend, Toby, is kidnapped she enlists the help of compulsive list-maker and missing-persons finder, Whilbert Stroop. Together they are drawn into a mystery that began many centuries ago, and soon they find themselves losing a race against time and treachery, as an unknown enemy, and murder, begin to snap at their heels...

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $3.21

  Lucca,CityState for hundreds of years, keeper of secrets and relics, possessor of the Holy Face of Christ, has Napoleon's army at its gates, the emperor having declared himself King of All Italy. A continent away in Bexleyheath, Mabel Flinchurst gazes down from her window upon the Advent Fair. With all the hustle and bustle she doesn't see the pilgrim walk into thechurch ofSt Anthony's across the square, and slit his own throat. ButLucca and this suicide are strands from the same rope, a rope that is being wound unseen about Mabel, ready to rip her from her cosy world. When Mabel's friend, Toby, is kidnapped she enlists the help of compulsive list-maker and missing-persons finder, Whilbert Stroop. Together they are drawn into a mystery that began many centuries ago, and soon they find themselves losing a race against time and treachery, as an unknown enemy, and murder, begin to snap at their heels!

• Used

  Hardcover
  2006

  $6.52

  The first in a rich and atmospheric new historical crime series, full of action, vivid characters and conspiracy. Napoleon and his armies are at the gate of the ancient walled city of Lucca, Italy. In one last desperate attempt to preserve their proud heritage, the Lucchese Council despatch a secret message to their compatriots in England. Unknown to them, ruthless conspirators have got there first. But neither they nor the Council know quite what they are looking for, and the one man who could have told them has just entered a church near the prosperous Italian silk community on the London borders, and slit his own throat. Witness to this gruesome death is Mabel Flinchurst. When her good friend, a vagrant boy called Toby, is kidnapped, she is caught up in a conspiracy beyond her understanding. She has no idea that the fate of a small Italian city lies in her hands, and that she, and now anyone connected to her, is in mortal danger...