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Spirale
Paperback
Mystery & ThrillerScience Fiction
ISBN13: 9781066787401
Publisher: Richard Wardle
Published: Jul 2 2026
Pages: 390
Weight: 0.85
Height: 0.87 Width: 5.00 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
Some families inherit houses. Others inherit secrets.
When Claire Violette inherits La Maison Violette, an isolated manor house in the Charente countryside of France, she expects little more than a neglected property and a connection to the family history her late mother refused to discuss. Instead, she discovers a place that seems suspended between past and present, where unexplained symbols appear in the frost, forgotten rooms lie hidden behind sealed walls, and the house itself seems to remember those who once lived within it.
While restoring the old estate with architect James Ashcroft, Claire uncovers a concealed underground chamber that reveals evidence of a clandestine wartime experiment carried out beneath the house during the German occupation of France. The deeper they investigate, the more they realise that La Maison Violette was never simply a refuge from the war. It was built to guard something far more extraordinary.
In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lucille Violette witnesses Nazi scientists attempting to unlock the power of a mysterious device hidden beneath her family home. Their experiments awaken forces they neither understand nor can control, forcing Lucille to keep a dangerous secret that could alter the course of history itself.
Separated by more than seventy years, Claire and Lucille's lives become increasingly intertwined as mysterious echoes cross the boundaries of time. Cryptic notebooks, coded messages, strange radio transmissions, and recurring spiral symbols all point towards an impossible truth: the chamber beneath La Maison Violette is not merely a relic of the past; it is a gateway. As powerful organisations begin to uncover their existence, Claire must decide whether some discoveries are worth making and whether history should ever be rewritten.
Moving seamlessly between occupied France and the present day, Spirale combines the tension of a wartime thriller with the wonder of speculative science fiction and the atmosphere of gothic mystery. Rich in historical detail and layered with intrigue, it explores memory, sacrifice, family legacy, and the enduring question of whether the past can ever truly be left behind.
The first novel in The Spirale Trilogy, Spirale is a gripping blend of historical fiction, time-slip adventure, mystery, and suspense that will appeal to readers who enjoy intelligent, character-driven stories where history, science, and the supernatural converge.
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