Author: Randi Pellagrini
A dying monk. An iron key. A conspiracy older than Christendom.
1347. Scribe Thomas of Eltville thought his greatest challenge would be copying manuscripts in peace. Then his mentor is murdered in front of him — and thrusts an iron key into his hands with his dying breath.
The key unlocks a cipher hidden in manuscript margins across Europe. The cipher reveals a conspiracy that has been engineering human bloodlines — and human catastrophes — for over two thousand years.
Now Thomas is running for his life with two unlikely allies: Margarethe, a cloth merchant whose father was tortured to death by the Order for knowing too much, and Maria, a fourteen-year-old girl who carries forty generations of forbidden knowledge encoded in her blood.
Together, they must race across plague-ravaged Europe to find seven keys before the Order recaptures them. Each key reveals another layer of a conspiracy so vast it makes the Black Death look like a side project.
Because the Order doesn't just preserve knowledge through dark ages — they create the dark ages.
Collapse isn't inevitable. It's engineered. And Thomas has just become the one person who can prove it.
I really felt like I was with these three as they race to gather the seven keys before it is too late. Thomas, Margarethe and Maria endure a number of close calls, some betrayal, and some unexpected help as they chase down the keys. Occasionally I encountered some missed editing, but overall I enjoyed reading it.
Currently four of the planned 12 books are complete, and can be read as standalone The author has outlined the story plan on his website and it is very ambitious. I got this one either free or 99 cents and will wait for the others to drop before I get them.
I'm heading into the non fiction world for a bit with Prequel: (Rachel Maddow) for the Frangela book club and Separation of Church and Hate (John Fugelsang) for The Liberal Ladies Who Lunch Book Club. Frangela's Book Club is a biweekly Zoom meeting and we only read 2 chapters for each getogether. The other club is traditional one book a month. (I can't believe I am reading two non-fiction books at the same time; that is quite out of the ordinary for me.)
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