Salto Mortale

Salto Mortale is a literary mystery published in Dutch by De Geus Publishing.

Five women. Five strangers. Five leaps into the unknown.

Salto mortale/ n. / (Italian) Death jump: an acrobat’s daring mid-air leap from one trapeze to another.

On a sizzling day in August five women arrive at a deserted medieval castle looking forward to a stimulating summer of renovation: a stage actress, a disturbed teenager, a dominant entrepreneur, an undercover journalist, and a woman who doesn’t identify as anyone in particular. When the instructor fails to appear, they’re caught in a dilemma. Linger or move on? It’s the castle with its abundance of mirrors, its whispering rooms and idyllic aura of neglect, that lures them to stay.

Soon after, mysterious messages appear on the walls, ceilings, windows, and floors. Paint me, break me, open me, tear me away… As the women follow the instructions they enter into a psychological labyrinth. The place seems to share an intimate knowledge of their blacked out secrets.

Salto Mortale is novel that explores our fear of freedom and the patterns of expectations that constrain us.