Rating: 5/5
Lucretia Grindle is my one of my favourite authors and yet she is really under the radar. Her novels are fabulous. Her more latest books combine a modern narrative and historical narrative running simultaneously. Then I found her first two novels and although they are completely different from her new novels they are brilliant.
This story takes her back to Florence where her novels really come alive! Her way of recreating the city and making it character in the book is unbelievable.
This particular novel is about a woman who is brutally attacked and then witnesses the same attacker kill her husband. After burying him she returns to Florence to study art history at a continuing education school when the murders begin again. With her nosey roommate, and constantly travelling lover the heroine becomes obsessed with the crimes and ends up coming face to face with the killer.
Usually when I read crime novels I can guess who the murderer is about half way through and this time I thought I had as well but man I was WRONG! Way off target. That is what is so brilliant about Grindle the story seems to be heading in one direction and then she veers off in another.
The book is brutally descriptive and can turn your stomach at times. Also don't read it at night... when you're alone! Other than that it is truly brilliant and a must read. If you have never read a Grindle novel you have to she is an unsung legend!
