book cover of The Thread of the Unicorn
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The Thread of the Unicorn

(2022)
(The fifth book in the Agency of the Ancient Lost & Found series)
A novel by

 
 
France, May 30, 1432: a young peasant girl is burned as a heretic after successfully leading an army into battle against the English. Two members of Charles VII’s court, an advocate and a priest, stand on the sidelines unable to intervene when their king bargains away Joan d’Arc’s life. Yet they seethe with a sense of injustice that compels them to condemn the powers that be at the risk of their own necks. And they give voice to their outrage through... art.

Nearly 700 years later, Phoebe McCabe is approached by Lilly Saint Chappelles, a Chinese-Franco actress living in the US, with an unusual request: help locate a missing tapestry which her adopted French family believe to be the seventh in the Lady and the Unicorn series. Though doubtful that such a textile could survive, Phoebe badly wants the case. It should be simple enough, she thinks.

But then all hell breaks loose. Lilly’s Chinese uncle and her twin sister are discovered working behind the scenes. It is a point of honor for Mimi Saint Chappelles, now Mimi Yu Ho, to best her sister and claim the tapestry that Uncle Tengfeng has already sold. But Phoebe, Lilly, and the Agency of the Ancient Lost & Found must locate the tapestry first, even if it means leading their adversaries right to its door.

And those adversaries are well-financed, expert in martial arts, and ruthless. They already occupy the ancient bastion that holds the tapestry when Phoebe arrives. While she races to find the hiding place and avoid being captured, clues come by way of saints and angels and even Jean herself. Intuition, historical details, and the knowledge of ancient crypts swirl in the mental tempest that hits Phoebe as she descends upon the Normandy coast.

In the end, she must track down the thread that leads to the allegorical lost unicorn and thus unravel the story of bravery, miracles, and the triumph of the human spirit against both church and state. It is the language of art, the voice of truth against power and politics, a story that must be told.

The glory of Paris combined with the Loire valley, châteaus, Black Madonnas, and the panorama of history provides an action-packed historical mystery thriller that won’t let go of you until you turn the last page.




Genre: Historical Mystery

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