Ein finsteres Gerücht erreicht den Hof des Herzogs: In Hameln sollen hundertdreißig Kinder verschwunden sein. Der junge Ritter Robert von Thalstein wird entsandt, um das Rätsel zu lösen. Doch Hameln, halb versunken in ewigem Regen und schwarzem Schlamm, ist religiösem Irrglauben anheimgefallen. Ein vermeintlicher Ketzer wird grausam gefoltert, während sich der Statthalter des Herzogs verängstigt versteckt. Der geistliche Herrscher der Stadt, der Probst Gunthar von Wetterau, sorgt sich nur um das Mysterienspiel, das er auf einer gigantischen Bühne aufführen will. Und ein wunderlicher Italiener namens Dante Alighieri erzählt Robert von einem Rattenfänger, der die Kinder durch einen nahen Berg in die Hölle entführt haben soll. Die Wahrheit, so Dante, kenne einzig die junge Klarissenschwester Julia, doch sie hat ewiges Schweigen gelobt. Robert begreift, dass der Schlüssel zu Hamelns Geheimnissen in der Vergangenheit verborgen liegt - in jener der Stadt und seiner eigenen ...
Author
With millions of books sold worldwide, Kai Meyer is one of Germany's most successful authors. His novels have been translated into 27 languages including English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Chinese. Kai Meyer was born in 1969 in northern Germany. He began college at the University of Bochum, Germany, where he studied film, theatre, and philosophy. After a year, he dropped out to work for a newspaper as a trainee journalist, followed by two years as a staff journalist. Kai wrote his first novel in his early 20s, and it was published when he was just 24 years old. He has been a full-time novelist since 1995. To date, Kai has written nearly 50 books – some for adults, some for teenagers. Kai’s books are mostly historical with strong fantastical overtones. There are over 1.5 million Kai Meyer books in print in Germany, and he is quickly gaining popularity in other countries as well: THE WATER MIRROR went into its third US printing before it was even delivered to bookstores, and his young adult dark fantasy series SIEBEN SIEGEL is a substantial hit in Japan. The British edition of THE FLOWING QUEEN / THE WATER MIRROR won the 2007 Marsh Award for Best Children´s Book in Translation. In 2007 his historical novel DAS GELÜBDE (The Vow) was turned into a movie by celebrated German director Dominik Graf. SIEBEN SIEGEL is set to be filmed in 2008, other books are optioned. Kai has also written screenplays, two of which have been made into TV movies. He is the author of a hardcover comic book, PANDORAMICUM, and is one of the creators of the fantasy role-playing game ENGEL (US edition by White Wolf). Kai Meyer lives in Westphalia near the Rhine in Germany.
