Stephen O’Shea, journalist and translator formerly based in Paris and New York, is the author of five non-fiction books dealing with European travel and history, including The Perfect Heresy, The Alps: A Human History from Hannibal to Heidi & Beyond, and The Friar of Carcassonne: Revolt Against the Inquisition in the Last Days of the Cathars. He currently resides in Providence, Rhode Island.
It's 1242. Dominican inquisitors are traveling in France, persecuting and torturing suspected heretics. But then someone starts killing the Inquisitors....and whoever it is must be stopped before the fanatical Dominicans wreak their brutal revenge. So the Crown sends Balian of Mallorca, a notorious alchemist/physician/polyglot who many believe to be a sorcerer, to Languedoc to solve the perplexing mystery.