The Fallen Angel - A Novel

It is the color of the Virgin Mary's cloak, a dazzling pigment desired by artists, an exquisite hue infused with danger, adventure, and perhaps even the supernatural. It is . . .

SacrÉ Bleu

In July 1890, Vincent van Gogh went into a cornfield and shot himself. Or did he? Why would an artist at the height of his creative powers attempt to take his own life . . . and then walk a mile to a doctor's house for help? Who was the crooked little "color man" Vincent had claimed was stalking him across France? And why had the painter recently become deathly afraid of a certain shade of blue?

These are just a few of the questions confronting Vincent's friends-baker-turned-painter Lucien Lessard and bon vivant Henri Toulouse-Lautrec-who vow to discover the truth about van Gogh's untimely death. Their quest will lead them on a surreal odyssey and brothel-crawl deep into the art world of late nineteenth-century Paris.

Oh lÀ lÀ, quelle surprise, and zut alors! A delectable confection of intrigue, passion, and art history-with cancan girls, baguettes, and fine French cognac thrown in for good measure-SacrÉ Bleu is another masterpiece of wit and wonder from the one, the only, Christopher Moore.

Before there was "The Da Vinci Code" there was "A Cup To Die For." When a world famous Tunisian archaeologist finds the Holy Grail on a remote archaeological dig on the north coast of Tunisia, intrigue and violence spread across the globe like ripples on a pond. The Grail turns out to be not the mystical cup of legend, but a document that holds a secret so awesome and terrible that it will cause global chaos.

Two groups have been seeking the document since the Middle Ages.

One is the Péres, an ancient society so secret that most experts don´t believe it actually exists. It has formed an unholy alliance with a shadowy group within the Vatican. They are bent on destroying the Grail before its contents can be revealed so that they can pursue a plan of earth-shaking consequences. Opposing them is a tiny group of obscure monks who like the Knights Templar before them are sworn to protect the Holy Grail. They have vowed to reveal its shocking secret to the world. The archeologist hides the document then flees to Key West and his old friend, retired museum director, Rene Barberri. Before he can pass on the secret, his rented car explodes, killing him instantly and almost killing Barberri.

Rene and Key West beach-bum Homicide Detective, Dexter Piet, set out to track down their friend´s murderers and to find the Grail. By now the two religious groups are attacking each other with the demonic abandon of the possessed while they scour the earth to find the hidden document.

Rene and Dex are plunged into this seething web of murder and deceit in their breakneck pursuit of the murderers that careens from the steamy beaches of Key West, into the teeming souks of Tunis, to the back alleys of Paris and finally to a blood-soaked showdown in the remote Basque Pyrenees.

At the time of his death, Oliver was working on a new book about Mozart. Though the official report states that Oliver died in a tragic accident, the facts don’t add up. But as Ben and Leigh dig deeper, they find that Oliver’s research reveals that Mozart, a notable Freemason, may have been killed by a shadowy and powerful splinter group of the organization. The only proof lies in a missing letter, believed to have been written by Mozart himself. When Leigh and Ben receive a video documenting a ritual sacrifice performed by hooded men, they realize that the sect is still in existence today and will stop at nothing to keep its secrets.