About this Event
Join us at Ferguson Auditorium at A-B Tech for the launch of Elizabeth Kostova's new novel, Mystery Play, with Terry Roberts.
Tickets include a hardcover copy of Mystery Play. Additional books and backlist titles will be available to purchase onsite from Malaprop's.
Doors open at 5:30pm, the event begins at 6pm, followed by a book-signing.
Ferguson Auditorium is located on A-B Tech's campus, with free parking located next to the building.
Mystery Play
The last living member of a family of historians who has been hunted by dark forces associated with Dracula finds himself in peril at the hands of a new threat in this thrilling novel from the #1 bestselling author of The Historian.
After his beloved mother passes away suddenly, Jay Turner finds himself at a crossroads. She was always secretive, and when he returns to their Boston home to clear out her possessions, he finds an unusual item: a partially burned scrap of newspaper bearing the name “Gael Brogan.” Soon after, a deliveryman leaves behind a package containing a small antique volume bound in leather—and two bloody footprints.
The sight of the volume is chilling. As a young scholar, his mother had been given the medieval book—one of a set commissioned by Vlad Țepeș, otherwise known as Dracula, just before his death in 1477. She'd always warned Jay of the dangers associated with it, and had donated it to a museum before she died . . . yet here it is, back in his possession.
Jay sets out to learn more about Gael Brogan, a prominent nineteenth-century actor whose last and most famous role was based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. As Jay begins to dig deeper—with the help of a mysterious woman named Rhiannon—he uncovers the frightening story of a young actress who fell under Brogan's sway long ago. Before long, Jay and Rhiannon realize that something similarly implacable is pursuing them.
In this epic and riveting tale, Elizabeth Kostova takes us deep into the Gilded Age of the theater and across the Atlantic in pursuit of an ancient evil and its dramatic followers.
Elizabeth Kostova is the bestselling author of The Shadow Land, The Historian, and The Swan Thieves. She holds a B.A. in British Studies from Yale University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan, where she won the Hopwood Award for the Novel.
Terry Roberts is the author of seven celebrated novels: A Short Time to Stay Here, That Bright Land, The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival , My Mistress’ Eyes are Raven Black , The Sky Club , The Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape, and most recently, In the Fullness of Time (Short-listed for Southern Literary Review's Books of the Year 2025). Roberts is a native of the mountains of Western North Carolina--born and bred. A lifelong teacher and educational reformer, Roberts was the Director of the National Paideia Center (now retired) and lives in Asheville, NC with his wife, Lynn.
Event venue & nearby stays
Ferguson Auditorium, Fernihurst Drive, Asheville, United States
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