The Borgia Portrait
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A noble family, a legendary painting, a cursed palazzo. The new Venetian mystery from master storyteller David Hewson.
When Arnold Clover is recruited by Lizzie Hawker to help her look into her family inheritance, he cannot begin to guess the journey he is about to embark on.
Lizzie's mother, an Italian countess, disappeared thirty years ago, presumed dead. Her father, a famous, some say infamous, music promoter, has just died and now the family home Ca' Scacchi, a leaning palazzo in Dorsoduro, has fallen to her. When her mother vanished so too did a priceless painting, supposedly an erotic portrait of Lucrezia Borgia, which has captivated men for generations.
When a body is discovered in a hidden crypt beneath the checkerboard courtyard of the palazzo, other secrets are unearthed with it. Lying with the body is a document, a story of an episode in Casanova's colourful life, and within it a set of clues that might lead to the location of the painting. But it quickly becomes apparent that Lizzie and Arnold are not the only ones interested in finding the painting.
The search for the lost Lucrezia quickly becomes a race through the secret history of Venice, one with potentially deadly consequences.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hewson's convoluted second mystery narrated by archivist Arnold Clover (following 2022's The Medici Murders) finds Brit Lizzie Hawker employing him to serve as her guide to Venice. Lizzie's mother, Venetian countess Lucia Scacchi, disappeared 30 years earlier after an apparent suicide (though her body was never found), leaving Lizzie heir to the ancient, semiderelict palazzo Ca'Scacchi. Rumor has it that hidden somewhere on the grounds is a priceless erotic portrait of 15th-century noblewoman Lucrezia Borgia, which the Venetian government wants found and kept in Italy. Matters take a bizarre turn when a corpse believed to be Lizzie's mother is discovered in a secret crypt under the palazzo's courtyard, and beneath the body, a typewritten story containing eight clues Lizzie and Arnold must solve to find the missing portrait.Their treasure hunt leads them into dark corners of Venice where they're pursued by others on the same trail. Hewson takes readers on an exhaustive tour of a fascinating city, sometimes at the expense of the central mystery. Still, there's enough intrigue at hand for readers who prefer their puzzle solving with a side of travelogue.