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Very quickly they fall into a world of practitioners of black magic and the occult arts, for Helen's father has borrowed a 16th-century painting called "The Secret of the Alchemist" from her aunts' private collection and thinks he can hold his buyer up for a higher price by pretending to lose it for a few weeks. He meanwhile smuggles it out of Switzerland and secretes it in Venice, leaving the key for his daughter to find in an ornate desk he ships to Florence for repairs.
The alchemist of the painting is Ruggiero de Montefeltro, an Englishman who went to Italy in the 16th century and began to learn the secrets of the occult at the hands of a magician in order to lay his hands on the Thaumatophane. His own fate is left unclear until the apocalyptic finish to this riveting novel, which takes place in an ancient house in Provence where the very Gates of Hell are opened.
About: This is the first novel in the Fate of the Thaumatophane trilogy (pronounced TOW/MAY/TOW/FAIN or TOW/MAY/TOW/FAN).
About: What would you do if your father sent you a key that could unlock the most powerful secret of the ancient world?
About: What would you do if your father sent you a key that could unlock the most powerful secret of the ancient world?
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