The Secrets of Blood and Bone
A Novel
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
In the stunning follow up to The Secrets of Life and Death, Rebecca Alexander has created a gripping supernatural thriller that bridges time, legend and the power of blood.
Following her showdown with Elizabeth Bathory, Jackdaw Hammond is running from her past, hiding from her future, and hoping to contain her newfound thirst for blood. Buying an overgrown home in the middle of nowhere seems like the perfect place to escape…at least until she finds herself in the sights of a murderous family with a terrible secret and a penchant for dark magic. Meanwhile, her old ally Felix Guichard has gone to New Orleans to conduct his own investigation into the nature of blood magic, but is soon sucked into the intrigues of the city’s occult underworld. But Jack will need Felix more than she knows, for the battle for her soul is set to begin.
Her only salvation may lie with the secrets of 16th century master occultist Edward Kelley, and a dangerous mission he undertook in Venice to confront the Inquisition, the darkest deeds of his own past, and the fearsome power of Elizabeth Bathory.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This awkward sequel to 2014's The Secrets of Life and Death shares that volume's strengths and weaknesses. Once again, the sections set in the past are much more compelling than those in the present. Edward Kelley, the real-life assistant to 16th-century necromancer John Dee, has traveled to Venice on a secret assignment, only to be robbed of his possessions almost immediately. He also manages to run afoul of the Inquisition, which suspects him of raising a demon that "feasts on children." The modern-day plot lines, involving different types of vampires (sanguinary, energy, etc.), come across as dull and derivative; the major characters in those sections, Felix Guichard (an academic who has studied Dee and Kelley) and Jackdaw Hammond (a woman who's survived an encounter with a sadistic serial killer), just aren't as well developed as Kelley. Readers not invested in Felix and Jackdaw from the prior book may find themselves tuning out when these characters are in focus.
