Dix-neuf

When the descendants of three renowned painters are murdered in three different countries, special agent Viviane Silva discovers that the killers were hunting a coded message hidden within one of the old masters' paintings. The trail opens onto a monstrous puzzle: an equation concealed in a musical score, a grimoire capable of summoning dark forces, a secret sealed inside an ancient Punic tomb, and a pyramid submerged beneath the waters of the Bermuda Triangle.

Behind these scattered enigmas lies a demonic conspiracy — one prepared since ancient Egypt for the coming of the Darkness — and the investigation draws Viviane, step by step, toward the ruins of Carthage itself.

The first volume of Sami Mokaddem's Carthage Trilogy, Dix-neuf is an esoteric thriller that braids cryptic puzzles, historical reference, and ancient mythology into a fast-moving chase across continents. It won the Comar d'Or's Découverte prize in 2015 and launched one of Tunisian genre fiction's most popular series.