The Tulip Virus

The Tulip Virus

A gripping thriller that plunges us into the fascinating history behind the crash of the 17th Century Dutch tulip trade, a cataclysmic event that brought the European economy to its knees.

Alkmaar, July 1636: Local tavern proprietor and respected tulip trader Wouter Winckel's brutally slaughtered body is found in the barroom of his inn, an anti-religious pamphlet stuffed in his mouth. As the owner of one of the most beautiful tulip collections in the Untied Republic of the Low Countries, the auction of his bulbs (including the most coveted and expensive of them all, the Semper Augustus) sends the market to euphoric heights but culminates in its ultimate collapse). Who was responsible for his murder? Did they have something to gain from the auction? Or was it something more to do with questions of free will, science and religion?

London, October 2007: Dutchman Frank Shoeller is brutally murdered in his home, discovered moments before death by his nephew Alec, to whom he profers a 17th century book about tulips as he takes his last breath. Who is responsible for Frank's death and what connects it to the death of Winckel more than 350 years earlier? Why do Alec and his friends suddenly find their own lives in danger?

A bestselling novel in the Netherlands (having sold over 400,000 copies!), this is the first time The Tulip Virus has been translated into English.

Danielle Hermans was born in the Netherlands and with her father working for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (including as the Netherlands Consul-General in Melbourne between 1990-94), she was raised in various countries around the world. She spent most of her childhood in Africa, and from the age of eleven she lived in the Netherlands. After obtaining her degree in the Liberal Arts at the University of Utrecht, she worked as a freelance communications consultant until deciding to take time out to pursue her passion, writing. Her Dutch publisher, A.W. Burna (who also publish John Grisham, Stieg Larsson, David Baldacci and Elizabeth George) have sold over 400,000 copies of The Tulip Virus and also published her second novel, The Waterlords (2009). She is currently working on her third novel, The Man From Manhattan and lives in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

The Tulip Virus
Allen and Unwin
Author: Danielle Hermans
ISBN: 9781742371894
Price: $32.99