Why a Booktrail?
1604: Inspired by Countess Erzsébet Báthory, the world’s most prolific female serial killer….
The Last Handmaid
What you need to know before your trail
Catalina, an orphaned girl is sent to serve the infamous Countess Erzsébet Báthory at Csejte Castle. It is a place of shifting loyalties, where girls who displease the household vanish without a trace. Survival here depends on obedience and silence.
When Catalina is summoned to the Countess’s private chambers, she is drawn into a dangerous relationship and becomes entangled in the Countess’s obsession with strange ‘medicines’. As more girls disappear, Catalina knows there is a cost to staying alive.
She must decide whether to try and escape her mistress’ hunger, be consumed by it – or learn to feed it herself.
Travel Guide
Hungary/Slovakia
Early 1600s Hungary was a bloody theatre of war stuck directly between two colliding empires: the Catholic Habsburg Empire and the Islamic Ottoman Empire. The castle and those within live in a very dangerous time and place.
In the book, Protestant Hungary is experiencing aggressive Catholic retaliation and spreading religious danger.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Last Handmaid
Destination/location: Slovakia, Hungary Author/Guide: Clare Whitfield Departure Time: 1604
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