Dracula meets And Then There Were None in this gothic murder mystery set during late-19th century, where eight strangers must solve the enigma of a locked mansion before sunrise, while being preyed upon by someone (one of them?) who may not be human at all. Loire Valley, France, 1888. Château Darcrois has remained cut off from the world for seven years. Until this stormy night. Eight invitations sealed with the color of blood are delivered. Eight carriages as dark as shadows arrive. And when Lucien, owner of a Parisian bookstore, receives one of these letters inviting him to a "most unusual banquet" everything changes forever. The evening that awaits him at the mansion is full of mystery… but also, full of madness and tragedy. The posthumous enigma of Baron Darcrois, capable of revealing the culprit’s identity behind the Case of the Crimson Maiden—the impossible crime the whole world talked about—is as tempting as a poisoned apple. Intellectually challenging, it makes dinner fly around a word that no one dares to take seriously. After all, "vampires" only exist in the books Lucien sells. Or so he believes. When the guests begin to die one by one, in ways that defy human logic and harken back to the bloody case, everyone will question their own beliefs—as well as their chances of surviving the macabre trap into which they’ve fallen. None of the eight are as innocent as they seem. The night is oblivious to their desperate cries, to their dangerous secrets and to their shocking revelations. What’s the meaning behind this invitation? What’s the truth that hides in the manor and its annexed forest? And who, out of the eight, is the culprit? If they don’t work together to figure this out, when the sun rises, no one will be left alive. A fresh bite on a classic setting, Banquet of Shadows perfects the gothic murder mystery and sends it soaring on the vertiginous wings of suspense and claustrophobic horror, blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction. Deliciously dark, it whispers its premise in your ear, while extinguishing the last candle.