The Gates of Dawn

Blurb

“Suddenly, she felt so alone. So very naked and very alone. Tied up and gagged with a man she hardly knew, a man who was probably going to die right in front of her. He hadn’t said a word in ages - he may already be dead. Then all she’d have for company would be her nightmares and the cold, gnawing darkness of the oncoming night.”

At a small general auction in the centre of Bristol, Emily Bradshaw is about to make a discovery that will shock the art world and change her life forever.

Unearthing a previously unknown sketchbook by Victorian artist, Herbert Draper, she soon finds herself embroiled in a race with a rival bidder, the mysterious Henry Faber, to identify a collection of eight priceless paintings by the enigmatic Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - each referencing a ‘sacred doctrine’ from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Just as she thinks her search is at an end, Emily is confronted by a man born of obsession and a dark family secret, who plans to pull off, what will be, the largest and most audacious art robbery of the century.

The Gates of Dawn is a wonderfully descriptive and fast-paced thriller, telling of man’s primeval fascination with art and how some, whose obsession is to garner all such beauty for themselves, will stop at nothing to get what they want.