Lord Mord

From Miloš Urban, author of international bestseller The Seven Churches, comes a new thriller. Hapsburg Prague at the end of the nineteenth century seethes with tension between Czechs seeking independence and the German-speaking population who wield the power. Caught between both are the Jews. Josefov, the Jewish Quarter, is being modernized, causing large-scale destruction of the medieval city. Moving through this maelstrom is the drug-addicted, absinthe-drinking, tubercular Adi, Count Arco, aka Lord Mord, a Bohemian throwback who dotes on the ancient buildings and courtyards of the old town. Buying a house in Josefov, he refuses to move, going into battle with the faceless bureaucrats at the Town Hall who want the residents evicted. Meanwhile, the nighttime alleyways are haunted by a mythological monster nicknamed Kleinfleisch. Prostitutes are being murdered, and when Lord Mord's mistress becomes a victim, he finds himself sucked into wider events that wrench him out of his Bohemian idyll. A dizzying cocktail of mystery, murder and Gothic romance, Lord Mord is more than worthy of an author who has been dubbed 'the dark knight of Czech literature'.