Hidden treasure, secrets of the Templars, fight between the Inquisition and the Cathar heresy, fight between two women, Mireille Calmel plunges us into the 14th century in Haut Razès, a stone’s throw from the City of Carcasonne. A thrilling new thriller from the queen of historical fiction.
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April 1313. Carcassonne. Arrested by the Inquisition in place of her sister Cassiana, Margaux De Dente falls into the diabolical trap set by the Shadow Templar. The future of the young chatelaine? The stake. Margaux then only has twelve days left to live and twelve days to save her for those who love her.
It has already been six years since the Templars were arrested en masse by the French king Philippe le Bel. The Order was dissolved but no one knows where the famous treasure was hidden. The king orders Guillaume de Nogaret, keeper of the royal seal, the second personage of the State in a way, to return to Carcassonne to, finally, find the lost gold of the Templars.
A severed hand found on a mound of gold coins, a white wolf prowling in the night, fires at the top of the old Cathar towers, a story of love, revenge, a bloody hunt, a plot, Mireille Calmel brings us once again offers a thrilling thriller with this infernal countdown in this Razès valley, a stone’s throw from the City of Carcasonne.
In 2023, Mireille Calmel offered the two volumes of Shadow Templar in which the young chatelaine Margaux already appeared. The author did not imagine a sequel and yet…
Cover of the book “L’or maudit” by Mireille Calmel.
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© Editions XO
The two volumes of The Cathar Wolf (2020) were already taking place in Lastours, so you return to the region with Cursed gold. Carcassonne and its surroundings inspire you?
Carcassonne is a city that I love and in which I have walked very often. My father’s family was from Saint-Nazaire-de-Ladarez, so it’s not very far away, and then my sister lived in Castres for years too, and so Carcassonne was almost an obligatory route, but obliged for pleasure. It’s a fascinating city, this mirror open to the past, time stops there.
-And it’s true that I was wonderfully welcomed by the people at the tourist office, and at the Inquisition Museum too. They offered me additional ideas that I would not necessarily have thought of, and which further enriched, if possible, my knowledge of the place.
Margaux de Dente, the young chatelaine appears in the two volumes of “Shadow Templar“There wasn’t supposed to be a sequel but I think a meeting changed everything?
I honestly thought I was finished with this series, and with this character, and then a reader brought me back to it. She had inherited a mansion in which there were archives. She read both volumes of the Shadow Templar, and she said to herself, “ But Margaux by Dante, that means something to me, that name speaks to me “. Eventually, her memory took her back to her attic, where she found a deed in favor of Margaux de Dante.
And as a result, the reasons given for this purchase were so particular, she contacted me and that’s what led me to write these two volumes of “The cursed gold” which followed.
You have a very specific way of writing. You say you live with paranormal phenomena. Can you explain to us?
It starts with a dream that, basically, seems normal. Except it’s like I’m in a movie theater sitting in my seat, and then I see a movie happening in front of me. I am not present in the dream.
It’s like I’m in a movie theater sitting in my seat, and then I see a movie playing in front of me.
I’m really a spectator. On the other hand, I feel absolutely all the emotions. I would even say physical suffering when there is any. It’s a very special state. On the other hand, when I wake up, the dream stops, because everything is fine. But when I go back to sleep, it starts again, just like if I had pushed the pause button on a device.
Above all, it can last for days, weeks, months, until I really have names, dates, places, and then I am almost forced, because it becomes unbearable, to start my research. It corresponds, if you like, roughly to the first 4-5 chapters. I rarely have more than twenty or thirty pages to start working on.
But it’s enough to go digging, to poke around, to really have sufficiently precise details, to contact historians, to know where to look in the archives, to launch appeals also sometimes on social networks to readers who are in contact with themselves local historians. It allows me, I want to say, to initiate the network. And from there, to find the next part and let myself be carried away when I write.
