Beatrice O'Connell is devastated when her beloved father is murdered in the NYC town house she shares with him. She's convinced her father's death is connected to the mysterious grimoire he recently received as a gift from one of his grateful patients. Just the night before he died, an old family friend--who is also a rare book dealer--saw the ancient grimoire for the first time and was determined to buy it for a secretive client. But John O'Connell is a genuine book collector and once a book is his, it becomes his for life. Strangely enough, the only item missing from the house after his murder is the grimoire.
Although she can't prove that her father's old friend is involved, Beatrice begins to look into the circumstances behind the gift of the grimoire and its history. As she travels both at home and abroad for answers, she learns disturbing details about an ultra-religious group that will do anything to possess the grimoire. With the help of a local occult book dealer and her reporter ex-husband, Beatrice uncovers secrets dating back to WWII.
Pure evil can exist under the cover of the most holy of forms, as Beatrice learns in her odyssey for the truth. Where is the grimoire? Will Beatrice uncover just who is behind this mysterious cult? Who murdered her father? What significance does the grimoire have? And will Beatrice be able to unearth the truth before her own life and those around her are jeopardized?
THE WITCHES' HAMMER is a very dark, twisty thriller. This story is definitely not intended for squeamish readers or the faint of heart. Ms. Hitchcock has penned a thought-provoking book, which should please lovers of books like THE DA VINCI CODE. Although not my cup of tea, I found the book hard to put down and genuinely scary at times. Evil does sometimes wear an innocent face.
A respected surgeon and rare book collector is brutally
murdered in his elegant Manhattan home, just hours after
showing a book dealer the fifteenth-century manual of black
magic--a grimoire--he'd received from a grateful patient.
Now the healer's blood is everywhere--and only the priceless
grimoire is missing.
The horrific death of her beloved father has shattered
Beatrice O'Connell's quiet, sane, and orderly world. Only by
tracking down the vanished malevolent tome--with its dark
spell and salacious illustrations--can she hope to put
things right. But the search is leading Beatrice, her
ex-husband, and a mysterious occultist into an expanding
labyrinth of powerful evils, a tangled web that reaches as
far as the Vatican itself. What coveted secrets are hidden
in the missing volume that threaten to turn Beatrice into
precisely what her unseen and unrelenting enemies are
determined to destroy?
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