Poignant but paranoid, sensual yet chilling, Secrecy is a novel that buzzes with intrigue and ideas. But Cosimo III, Tuscany's penultimate Medici ruler, gives Zummo his most challenging commission yet, and as he tackles it his path entwines with that of the apothecary's daughter Faustina, whose secret is even more explosive than his. There are those who wish to remove Angelica from the court forever. But within Queen Christinas court, Angelica also finds jealousy, betrayal, treachery, and deceit. He is fascinated by the plague, and makes small wooden cabinets in which he places graphic, tortured models of the dead and dying. Angelica does indeed find safe haven-as well as a new friend, Mariuccia-within Queen Christinas court, and loves her role as the Queens favorite soprano singer. Art, sex and power – these, as always, are the obsessions.įacing serious criminal charges, Gaetano Zummo is forced to flee his native Siracusa at the age of twenty, first to Palermo, then Naples, but always has the feeling that he is being pursued by his past, and that he will never be free of it. The Enlightenment may be just around the corner, but knowledge is still the property of the few, and they guard it fiercely. The Renaissance is long gone, and the city is a dark, repressive place, where everything is forbidden and anything is possible. Carol Dines was born in 1956 and is the author of novels Best Friends Tell the Best Lies and The Queens Soprano, as well as short stories, poetry, and essays.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |