A compelling and fascinating read exploring the nature of good and evil. set in Budapest, a city so ancient and patchworked that it is easy to believe ghosts and angels walk the streets, our protagonist Gabriel wakes with no memory. The mystery is manifold; he must explore not just his own missing past and uncertain future, but a murder, the possible existence of supernatural beings, and a coming event that will shake Heaven and Hell, not to mention the Earth between. Full of surprises and contradictions, this book is well worth reading.
This is The Bourne Identity . . . as if Neil Gaiman had written it . . .
A man comes round on the floor of a shabby flat in the middle of Budapest. His head is glued to the floorboards with his own blood. There's a fortune in cash on the kitchen table. And he has no idea where, or who, he is.
He can do extraordinary things - speak any number of languages fluently, go three days without food or sleep, and fight with extraordinary prowess. But without a name, without a past, he's isolated from the rest of the world; a stranger to everyone, including himself - until a chance encounter with a young scholar leads to his first friendship, and his first hint that someone out there knows more about him than he does.
Someone is sending him clues about his past. Photographs hidden in books and crates of wine. Cryptic clues pointing towards a murdered woman. And clear warnings against Stephomi, his only friend. But that's not all; Gabriel Antaeus is seeing strange, impossible things: a burning man is stalking his dreams and haunting his mirrors, his dreams are filled with violence from the past, and his pregnant young neighbour is surrounded by an extraordinary golden aura.
Something dark and violent in Gabriel's past is trying to resurface. And as he pieces the clues together, everything points towards an astounding war between angels and demons . . . and a battle not just for the future of the world, but for the minds and souls of everyone in it.
"A haunting, engrossing story with a unique aura of its own. Alex Bell's remarkable debut is original, cleverly plotted and so well written the pages just flew by." Raymond Khoury
Author
About Alex Bell
Alex Bell is a law student, and an exceptionally able novelist. She lives in Hampshire.
