The Mosaic Crimes
By Giulio Leoni
2004
First Published
2.82
Average Rating
323
Number of Pages
Part of Series
Florence, June 1300. The body of an artist, his face covered in quicklime, is discovered next to the mosaic he had almost completed. Dante Alighieri, the newly appointed prior of the city of Florence (and the man who will one day write that exhaustive treatise on criminology, the Inferno ), is on the case. It is his first official investigation. Obscure clues lead him up and down the streets of Florence, following a trail full of intrigue and mystery. Why have seven scholars, each a master of his art, assembled in the city? What was the secret that might have been revealed had the artist lived to complete his work? Was it an alchemist’s formula to transform lead into gold? Did it have to do with Antilia, wild and beautiful, who dances nightly in a tavern owned by a one-armed crusader? Or perhaps with another elusive Beatrice, the heiress to the imperial Swabian throne, whose rumored arrival in the city could upset the political aspirations of Pope Boniface, Dante’s nemesis? Leoni’s voice is wry and irreverent as he pokes fun at the genius poet and renders Dante a human being—brilliant but temperamental, bumbling but undaunted. An enthralling historical thriller from Italy’s new maestro of crime.
Avg Rating
2.82
Number of Ratings
811
5 STARS
8%
4 STARS
16%
3 STARS
38%
2 STARS
26%
1 STARS
12%
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Author
Giulio Leoni
Author · 11 books
Giulio Leoni is a professor of Italian literature and history. He lives in Rome with his family. Also known as J.P. Rylan, author of the fantasy series of Anharra.
