Set in 15th-century Spain, this tale follows a young woman as she attempts to avoid persecution from the Inquisition, only to be confronted by her past and the danger it brings with it. Young Teresa had no idea that her grandfather was tortured and killed as Jewish heretic, for right after her birth she was sent to a convent with her mother's prayer that her Jewish heritage remain hidden forever. A twist of fate soon brings Teresa into the home of a former Jew, whose son not only knows of her past but puts her in a very dangerous position. Accused of being a witch, Teresa soon finds herself questioning her ability to escape her destiny.
Biography
Mary Ann Mitchell has published 11 books. Her first book, Drawn to the Grave, was a final nomination for the Bram Stoker Award and won the International Horror Guild Award. She held officer positions with the Horror Writers Association and with the Northern California Sisters in Crime organization. She is now making her books available as e-books.
As a child, Mary Ann Mitchell wrote short stories, essays, and poetry. When she was twelve she sent her short stories to the night editor of The Journal American, who encouraged her to send more. Her mother intercepted the letters and forbade her from writing. Seems some of the family's dark secrets were oozing onto Mary Ann's written pages. Her writing became secret and sporadic. Once she completed graduate school, she became a civil servant. Years later her husband asked her what her dream career would be. She quickly answered that she always wanted to be a novelist.
She began her writing career by taking writing classes at The University of California, Los Angeles and writing several short stories, which her husband encouraged her to submit for publication. Mary Ann Mitchell's short stories have been published in a number of magazines. The short story The Hyacinth Girl appeared in the anthology The Year's Best Horror Stories: XXI, edited by Karl Edward Wagner.
Before writing the Marquis de Sade series Mary Ann read many of Sade's works and a number of Sade biographies. She also read Marquis de Sade, Letters from Prison translated by Richard Seaver. This helped to form in her mind an image of the historical Sade.
She has always enjoyed crime novels and thrillers, especially the noir writers such as Jim Thompson and the brutal street novels of David Goines. Mary Ann has written a crime fiction novel of female vengeance titled Siren's Call.
