Splendour Falls

Book excerpt: Praise for New York Times bestseller The Firebird: "Kearsley blends history, romance and a bit of the supernatural into a glittering, bewitching tale."—Kirkus An Ancient Castle, a Tragic Love, and a Web of Secrets Begins to Unravel... Emily Braden has stopped believing in fairy tales and happy endings. When her fascinating but unreliable cousin Harry invites her on a holiday to explore the legendary own of Chinon, and promptly disappears—well, that's Harry for you. As Emily makes the acquaintance of Chinon and its people, she begins to uncover dark secrets beneath the charm. Legend has it that during a thirteenth-century siege of the castle that looms over the city, Queen Isabelle, child bride of King John, hid a "treasure of great price." And in the last days of the German occupation during World War II, another Isabelle living in Chinon, a girl whose love for an enemy soldier went tragically awry. As the dangers of the past become disastrously real, Emily is drawn ever more deeply into a labyrinth of mystery as twisted as the streets and tunnels of the ancient town itself. "A mix of intrigue and adventure...in a style similar to that of Mary Stewart or Barbara Erskine, Kearsley does an excellent job evoking the atmosphere of Chinon with its brooding castle."—The Winnipeg Free Press "Kearsley's action-packed mystery-romance, set in a medieval French town, shows the same deft plotting that won Kearsley the Catherine Cookson prize for Mariana."—Chatelaine