The Book of Blood and Shadow

By: Robin Wasserman

Narrated by: Emily Janice Card

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up. When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.

But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead. His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

Critic reviews

Kirkus Reviews Best of Teen's Books 2012

Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, February 13, 2012:
“Readers who enjoy fast-paced, bloody, historically inflected thrillers in the vein of Dan Brown will be riveted.”

Review, Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2011:
"Here's something refreshing—a religious-historical thriller . . . serving up shivery suspense, sans fangs or fur . . . A classy read that repays reader effort."

Review, Justine Magazine, February / March 2012:
“A must read for fans of Revolution and The DaVinci Code . . . fast-paced and vivid."

Review, A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy blog, SchoolLibraryJournal.com, March 28, 2012:
"I fell for The Book of Blood and Shadow at the first sentence . . . part of the wonder of The Book of Blood and Shadow is the twists and turns it takes . . .a favorite book read in 2012."

Review, The Horn Book Magazine, March 1, 2012:
"This is a thorough mixture of contemporary American adolescence, the sixteenth-century occult, and atmospheric, historical substance, all dished up with a convoluted plot in DaVinci Code mode."

“A lushly drawn mystery of manipulation and desire."
—Holly Black, author of Black Heart

"Genuinely thrilling. This is the historical conspiracy you've been waiting for."
—Maureen Johnson, author of The Name of the Star