Book excerpt: Paris, August 23rd, 1572. What do you do when your wife disappears ... In the middle of the bloodiest massacre in European history ... And you know she is about to give birth to your only child? Three wars of religion have turned Paris into a foetid cauldron of hatred, intrigue and corruption. The Royal Wedding, intended to heal the wounds, has served only to further poison the fanatics of either creed. But Carla could not have known that when she accepted an invitation to the ceremony. When Mattias Tannhauser rides into town, on Saint Bartholomew's Eve, his only intention is to find her and take her home. But as the massacre of tens of thousands of Huguenots begins, and the city plunges into anarchy, Carla is abducted by Grymonde, the grotesque gang leader of the Yards, and Tannhauser finds himself imprisoned in the Louvre, at the centre of a vicious conspiracy. Wanted by the law, the assassins' guild, and a militant army who call themselves the Pilgrims of Saint-Jacques, Tannhauser must rise to pitiless extremes even he has never known before. With no one to help him but a stable boy, he wades a river of blood without knowing what lies on the other side. As he harrows Hell in search of his beloved. His destiny is changed forever byThe Twelve Children Of Paris ...