The Songs of Adhartach

The Songs of Adhartach

AN 800-YEAR-OLD VENGEANCE. A WAR THAT NEVER TRULY ENDED. Normandy, 1256. When Lady Agnes de la Roche drags a bloodied stranger from the woods, she brings more than a guest into her father’s castle—she invites ruin. The woman, Melanie d’Eville, is as dazzling as she is dangerous, and within days superstition, grief, and a very real evil turn the household against her. An Inquisitor arrives. A rival baron circles. And Count Humbert de la Roche begins to choke on a poison no one can name. Summoned home, Amaury de la Roche—Templar commander and Agnes’s twin—finds the world he left collapsing. Into this storm walks Brother Adhartach, a sardonic friar clutching a fragment of a forbidden gospel and a ciphered prophecy that refuses to die. It speaks of four who must stand together when the world hangs “by four fragile straws”: the Sword-brother, the Shaman, the Seeress, and the Sorceress. From Chartres and Rome to wind-torn forests and the steppe, destiny knots their lives. Knights and bandits, abbots and courtiers—each wants the book Adhartach guards or the woman the pyres are meant for. To save Melanie—and perhaps the realm—Agnes and Amaury must decide what they truly believe, and what they are willing to burn. Centuries later, the song begins again. In sun-drenched San Jose, a ritual killing ripples through the city. A brilliant professor, a quick-witted young witch named Lucy, and the enigmatic Melanie find themselves staring at a face from a sixteenth-century portrait—and from memory. The four are gathering once more, and old debts are coming due. Blending the sweep of historical epic with the pulse of an occult thriller, The Songs of Adhartach braids two timelines into one spellbinding tale of faith and doubt, love and vengeance, and the cost of keeping a dangerous secret. Lush prose, sly humor, and vividly drawn characters carry the reader from monastery libraries and moonlit tourneys to modern lecture halls and crime scenes—until past and present collide in a reckoning neither age can escape. For readers of Umberto Eco and The Name of the Rose , Deborah Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches , and Katherine Arden—anyone who loves medieval intrigue, dual-timeline mysteries, and witchcraft with teeth. You’ll find: a fierce heroine torn between mercy and justice - a reluctant Templar with a twin-bound heart - a witch both hunted and necessary - found family, sharp banter, and a slow-burn bond - forbidden texts, ciphers, and a conspiracy that spans centuries An excerpt from the novel was longlisted for the Etnopero 2025 Literary Award.