The Mona Lisa Sacrifice
Peter Darbyshire
October 29, 2024
264 PAGES | ISBN 978-1-998408-05-4
The Book of Cross 1
“Even angels have to make a living these days.”
With this dry observance Peter Darbyshire introduces us to Cross, a man who has lived thousands of years, though he’d prefer not to have, and who is now hunting angels in a Barcelona filled with tourists, phone cameras and deep mystery.
The Mona Lisa Sacrifice is a layered supernatural thriller, filled with history, magic and beloved characters. When an angel promises to deliver Judas, a forgotten god of a forgotten people, to Cross for revenge if he can find the real Mona Lisa, a cascading set of mysteries involving a sisterhood of gorgons, Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Morgana le Fay and renegade angels is set in motion. Everything hangs in the balance. Even the fate of the world.
Reviews for First Edition
“A deliriously unhinged roller coaster of a novel, blending fantasy, history, horror and humour with the aplomb of an overfull blender, but all of it smarter than it, truly, has any right – or need – to be.” – National Post
"Sweeps you up with its gallows humour, whether you’re revelling in the pleasures of two-fisted, angel-punching action or the cleverly rendered language." – Quill & Quire
Reviews
Urban fantasy, mystery, and romp (Zoe McKenna, The British Columbia Review, 04/12/2024)
"If you come to The Mona Lisa Sacrifice willing to throw genre to the wind and go along for the ride, you may well have quite a bit of fun."
The Mona Lisa Sacrifice by Peter Darbyshire (Jayne Barnard, Bookish, 24/09/2024)
"The classical allusions, which are many, are intelligent but not off-puttingly erudite. They assume some basic familiarity with Judeo-Roman history. Knowing a bit of basic mythology helps too: Roman, Greek, Arthurian… to name a few. But, like Cross leaving bits of his memories in the library with Alice, you may never feel like you have the whole picture."
Book review: B.C. writer Peter Darbyshire invades Dan Brown territory with gargoyles and angels (Tom Sandborn, Vancouver Sun, 24/09/2024)
"A pleasurable, fast-moving romp through history and myth, conspiracy, and confusion."
Interviews
November 20, 2024: Peter Darbyshire on The Mona Lisa Sacrifice (Michel Elves, Turning Pages, 20/11/2024)
Peter talks to Michael Elves about creating the central character, the research that went into the depiction of the art world and more.
Episode 61: The Chronicles of Amber (Mark A. Rayner, Re-Creative, 06/11/2024)
Listen to Peter Darbyshire talk about the book that started him down the road to being a writer.
Looking Under the Hood: A Conversation on the Writing Life with Michelle Berry and Peter Darbyshire (River Street Writing, 10/10/2024)
Peter and Michelle Berry have a refreshingly real conversation about their writing processes and the writing life.
Peter Darbyshire (Nathan Whitlock, What Happened Next, 02/09/2024)
Peter joins Nathan Whitlock to talk about how running the COVID-19 social media response for a provincial health authority gave him a new perspective on the apocalypse, about the process of getting the Cross series reprinted—and why it needed to be—and about how the stretch of time since his last new work of fiction speaks to something of a crisis of faith when it comes to his own writing‑but also a sense of liberation.
Articles
Under the Cover: Behind the scenes of The Book of Cross series by Peter Darbyshire (Peter Darbyshire, All Lit Up, 23/10/2024)
Peter gives us a look into the impetus and making of his action-packed series.
Excerpt
Click here to read an excerpt of The Mona Lisa Sacrifice.
About the Author
Peter Darbyshire is the author of six books and more stories than he can remember. He lives near Vancouver, British Columbia, where he spends his time writing, raising children and playing D&D with other writers. It’s a good life.
Other Titles by this Author
The Apocalypse Ark (The Cross Series #3) (2024)
