From School Library Journal
Grade 7–10—Fans of the author's "Stravaganza" series (Bloomsbury) will welcome this novel set in Renaissance Italy. Wealthy young nobleman Silvano, 16, is infatuated with beautiful Angelica, who is married to a coarse sheep farmer named Piero. When Piero is murdered with Silvano's dagger, the teen is forced to flee, seeking sanctuary with a group of Franciscans. At the friary, two more murders cast further suspicion on him. A parallel story involves Aureliana, who has been forced by her family to marry a rich man she does not love. Her true love, Eduardo, has become a friar named Anselmo in the very friary where Silvano seeks refuge. As the stories coalesce, multiple murders, romance, betrayals, and star-crossed lovers all make for a page-turning mystery, and, in truly satisfying Shakespearean fashion, everyone ends up with the proper lover at the end. The book provides a well-realized setting rich with details of the time period, which are deftly woven into the plot. Especially interesting are the descriptions of the art of color-making for the pigments used for religious paintings. Engrossing historical fiction.—
Quinby Frank, Green Acres School, Rockville, MD Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* Hoffman set her acclaimed Stravanganza novels in an alternate world that resembled sixteenth-century Italy. In this suspenseful mystery, Hoffman leaves the alternate worlds behind and locates her story in the real-world history of fourteenth-century Umbria. Sixteen-year-old Silvano, a handsome nobleman, admires Angelica, a local merchant's wife, from afar. Then Angelica's husband is murdered, and Silvano becomes the prime suspect. Until his innocence is proven, Silvano takes refuge in a Franciscan friary, where he enjoys making pigments for local artists and finds himself attracted to a lovely novice at the adjoining abbey. Then a series of mysterious deaths puts Silvano under greater suspicion, and he determines to find the murderer. The publisher has compared this novel to Umberto Eco's
Name of the Rose (1983), and there are certainly similarities between the books' friary settings and central mysteries. Hoffman makes the story her own with an exciting tangle of murder suspects and romantic intrigues. The plot is crowded with characters, and the intricate details about pigment preparation and fourteenth-century art and life will slow some readers and fascinate others. Hoffman creates utterly engaging characters and vivid settings, and she skillfully turns up the suspense, wrapping her varied plot threads into a satisfying whole. Readers will race through to the satisfying, fairy-tale conclusion, which includes some empowering twists for the female characters.
Gillian EngbergCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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