City of Secrets

One Woman’s True-life Journey to

the Heart of the Grail Legend
June 2008 • ISBN 978-0-8356-0871-8 • $18.95 pb • 348 pp • 5 x 7 3/4

By Patrice Chaplin
www.patricechaplin.com
www.patricechaplin.com
City of Secrets is, perhaps, the very first nonfiction title to combine the stories of the
legendary Grail phenomenon with that of a modern-day love story. This is the true story of an
Englishwoman, writer Patrice Chaplin, and how she helped reveal the secrets of the famed
Rennes-le-Château and Abbé Saunière mystery.

Patrice first went to the ancient Spanish town of Girona in 1955 as a fifteen-year-old girl. She fell in
love with the town and with Jose, its favorite son. Over the years, as she returns again and again,
she sees and hears many unusual things: people talking about a wealthy priest named Abbé
Saunière of Rennes-le-Château, an old house with an amazing garden owned by a mysterious
Frenchwoman, a strange ceremony in this house, and several intriguing characters, including Jean
Cocteau.

Later, in 2003, Patrice finally starts to make sense of everything she has seen. Her lifelong friend
and former lover, Jose, has a heart attack, and decides it’s time to reveal the secrets he has been
guarding from the world. She learns that a private society has for generations held Saunière’s
letters and documents after his death in 1917. She also learns Jose has been the society’s
custodian for many years. Jose tells Patrice the secret is not in Rennes-le-Château and that it is
now her duty to discover the rest.

In support of her revelations, Patrice provides copies of previously unreleased letters, written by
Saunière, along with other documented evidence. Her romantic and lucid writing style, which has
often been compared to Beat Generation legend Jack Kerouac, will leave readers with no doubt
that this book is one-of-a-kind.

Patrice Chaplin, writer and playwright, has written twenty-six books; her novel Siesta became a
film starring Jodie Foster and Isabella Rossellini. As a Bohemian in Paris she spent time with Jean
Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. Married to Charlie Chaplin’s son Michael, in Hollywood she
worked with Lauren Bacall, Miles Davis, and Salvador Dali. She lives in London.

Xochi (sōchē) Adamé Quest Books Publicist

℡630.665.0130 x. 358 /
publicity@questbooks.net / questbooks.net /