The Parchment Maze

Some see the as saints and deities, while great artists such as Ovid, Dante and Orpheus described them as "shades". Thousands of others have called them angels, but few have ever descended to the bowels of the earth to discover their faces. Today, however, for the first time, a human being is close to grasping their true essence. While studying similarities between Christianity and Orphism, archeologist Vera Kandilova stumbles across perplexing symbols ties to a prehistoric Balkan civilization that mysteriously disappeared 5000 years ago. What begins as a purely academic scavenger hunt across Switzerland, Russia, Italy and Bulgaria leads her to frescoes in the Roman catacombs, a medieval cryptic manuscript called "The Parchment Maze". The intellectual puzzle quickly gets visceral - after a series of murders, thefts of valuable artifacts and kidnapping, the clues show Vera the path to uncovering the secret of the legendary incorporeal ones - those who jealously guard the most ancient knowledge and grant insight only to enlightened individuals such as Jesus, Enoch and Orpheus. Vera is determined to follow a trail of clues before the handsome assassin Ariman, with pale skin and colorful eyes, can obliterate them. An underground brotherhood led by the ghoulish Incorporeal One has raised Ariman to be a cold-blooded automaton. However, the merciless killer is also on a mission of his own - the only thing that could possibly tempt him from his path is love, since angels are capable of loving as no human being can...

"The Parchment Maze" by Ludmila Filipova is an archival suspense thriller, which topped national best-seller lists for years. In 2012, "National Geographic" made a film based on the book, entitled "Sword in the Stone & the Orpheus Amulet".

Ludmila Filipova is a best-selling Bulgarian author who has published seven highly acclaimed novels: "Anatomy of Illusions", "Scarlet Gold", "Glass Butterflies", "The Parchment Maze", "Dante's Antichthon", "The Anomaly and Typo". Her books have been translated into Russian, Greek, Turkish and Serbian, and have become both national and international bestsellers, while three of them are currently being developed into feature films. In 2011, Ludmila Filipova won Bulgaria's Woman of the Year award in the category of culture.

Content:
Prologue
The Incorporeal One
Eight Suns
The Forgotten Chateau
The Amulet
The Solar Code
Legacy from Another World
Metamorphoses
Doppelgangers
The Man on the Cross
Clues in Clay
Collectors
The Meanads
By Their Eyes
Madmen and Illusions
The Golden Trace
The Stolen God
Looking Inward
Comedies and Errors
Hidden Treasures
Misunderstood
The Remnants of History
What If the Cross Isn't a Cross?
In the Bowels of the Earth
Undeciphered Message from the Hidden Ones
Before You Lose Your Way
Twins
The Long-Awaited Ones
The Sun People
The Labyrinth of Symbols
The Imaginary Truth
Anything but a Dream
The Crucifixion
Senses of Doubt
Redemption
The Broadly Flowing Ocean
The Messengers
Questions
Hidden So As To Be Found
A Truth Few Dare to Utter
Gods and Demons
Before the End of the World
Shadows
Unspoken
Unknown Latitudes
The Hidden Ones
Condemned
Traces of the Saviors
Knowledge
History's Memory
The Parchment Maze
The Fish
Yet More Evidence
The Ark
Extinguished Like Embers
A Theory of Letters
A True Fantasy
Returning
The Sign of the Apocalypse
The Eternal Map
The Deepest Darkness
The Lost Paradise
Eight Waterfalls
Day Zero
The Eight-Pointed Sun
Thieves of Faith
The Lower Kingdom
The End of History
The Final Page
Book Reviews