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Prague, 1599. Christian Stern, a young doctor, has just arrived in the city. On his first evening, he finds a young woman´s body half-buried in the snow. The dead woman is none other than the emperor´s mistress, and there´s no shortage of suspects. Stern is employed by the emperor himself to investigate the murder. But can he unmask the killer before they reach their next victim?

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´The emperor´s mistress had been murdered, and the world had been taken hold of and turned upon its head´

Prague, 1599. Christian Stern, a young doctor, has just arrived in the city. On his first evening, he finds a young woman´s body half-buried in the snow.

The dead woman is none other than the emperor´s mistress, and there´s no shortage of suspects. Stern is employed by the emperor himself to investigate the murder. In the search to find the culprit, Stern finds himself drawn into the shadowy world of the emperor´s court - unspoken affairs, letters written in code, and bitter rivalries. But there´s no turning back now...

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Black is a master of high-class crime fiction, literary noir in the tradition of Georges Simenon and Raymond Chandler Guardian

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Black, Benjamin
Benjamin Black is the pen name of acclaimed author John Banville, who was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of fifteen novels, including The Sea, which won the 2005 Man Booker Prize. In 2013 he was awarded the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature, and in 2014 the Quirke novels were adapted into a major BBC TV series. This is the seventh book in the acclaimed Quirke series.

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