Spotlight: Blood of the Stone Prince by M.J. Neary

Blood of the Stone Prince

By M.J. Neary

Crossroad Press

September 23, 2017

Historical Fiction

ebook; 325 pages

From the alchemy labs of fifteenth-century France comes a tale of one beauty and three beasts on a macabre journey through the Parisian underworld. After sixteen years of priesthood, Monseigneur Desmoulins secretly wishes for excommunication. Fed up with sacristy intrigues and tedious inquisition proceedings, he keeps himself amused by dissecting rats, playing with explosives and stalking foreign women. Some of his dirty work he delegates to his nineteen-year-old protégé Daniel Dufort nicknamed Stone Prince, who plays the organ at the cathedral. The gaunt, copper-haired youth may look like an angel, but his music is believed to be demonic, pushing the faithful towards crime and suicide.

To keep themselves safe amidst urban violence, the master and his ward take fencing lessons from Lucius Castelmaure, an alcoholic officer facing a court martial. Their alliance is tested when a Wallachian traveler implores them to entertain his terminally-ill daughter Agniese, whose dying whim to is be buried inside the Montfaucon cellar alongside felons and traitors. The three men jump at the chance to indulge the eccentric virgin in the final months of her life.

Raised in the spirit of polyamory, Agniese has no qualms about taking all three men as lovers. In a city of where street festivals turn into massacres, it's only a matter of time before the romantic quadrangle tumbles into a pit of hellfire. Filled with witch-hanging, bone-cracking, gargoyle-hugging humor, Blood of the Stone Prince is a blasphemous thriller for the heretic in each one of us.

Praise for Blood of the Stone Prince:

"Infinitely inventive and full of masterly detail, this is historical fiction of the scholarly kind. But it is not without humour. Some elaborations accompany the confronting antics of the many fully sketched-out characters, who have much more than adventure on their minds, with fiendish cleverness that is quite droll. One believes the history, which seems to have taken place specifically for this intricate fiction to be built around it. The research is superb. One believes the locations, and one especially believes the escapades which are variously mystifying, entertaining, frightening and bold." --Rosanne Dingli, author of The Frozen Sea

"If there was a tradition for this unique story, it would include Anais Nin and the Marquis de Sade, but I think Marina Neary may be a tradition all her own. Doomed characters and dead-end journeys are one of her specialties, and you can see why. A disillusioned priest, a youth with a self-destructive talent, and a dying virgin enlivened by the realization that “you can’t take it with you” make a delicious tangle. Broadly ranged historical settings are another trademark of this talented author. Love the sense of humor that underlies Neary’s treatment of serious issues." --Thomas Sullivan, Pulitzer Prize nominee

Visit M.J. Neary's blog to learn more about the history that inspired this story!

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