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Alana White

Author of The Sign of the Weeping Virgin

4 Works 73 Members 6 Reviews

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We have an exciting new hero solving crimes in my favorite time period – the Renaissance. Guid’Antonio Vespucci is a wealthy merchant but finds himself – or more truthfully, his servant – in trouble when a guest at a dinner dies from eating bad mushrooms. But what forces are conspiring to kill and why?

Since Guid’Antonio is convinced his servant is innocent he embarks on a journey to determine who IS guilty and exactly why his guest was targeted at his table. What follows is eminently readable and entertaining novel that takes the reader through the streets of Renaissance Florence.

It was a book that kept my attention and interest as I am a great lover of all things Renaissance Italy – especially her art and artists so having a book in that time period has automatic appeal for me. It did not disappoint in descriptive power and I loved traveling back in time.
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½
 
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BooksCooksLooks | Oct 3, 2022 |
This is this Authors debut novel in the realm of historical fiction and, as much as I enjoy good historical fiction, I just couldn’t get into this one at all. I think it was a case of the classic line ‘it’s me, honestly, not you’.

To say the cast of characters in this book is immense would be an under-statement, and I felt at times it would have helped me along in my reading if there had been a character list printed in the front of the book; I have a sneaky feeling that many other readers who pick up this book may feel the same way too. Although none of the characters stand out in the book, they are interesting to say the least, and the main protagonist is very interesting; he is cranky, complicated, lonely and extremely loyal; all traits which seemed at odds to the world in which he was living, a world where loyalty seemed to be as fleeting as the wind.

Despite the indication in the synopsis that this may have edged into the realms of a genre I never read, I found there to be little to no romance in this book; there is no love in the traditional sense of the word and no homoerotic longings as can often take place in a novel of this kind. What there is however is political intrigue by the boatload, and this made the book a compelling read and was, for me, the saving grace that earned the rating of 3 thumbs as opposed to it being lower.

It is obvious that the Author has done a lot of research into this era in Florence’s history, and I found this interesting and educating as I did not know about some of the historical details touched upon in the novel. I felt this was helped by the fact that the main protagonist was actually a real-life figure in these times, and this added more realism to the descriptions used and the events encountered in the book.

I would recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction but particularly those who like a good solid mystery that is full of political intrigue.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/04/22/review-the-sign-of-the-weeping-virgin-five...




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Melline | 3 other reviews | Aug 13, 2022 |
This is this Authors debut novel in the realm of historical fiction and, as much as I enjoy good historical fiction, I just couldn’t get into this one at all. I think it was a case of the classic line ‘it’s me, honestly, not you’.

To say the cast of characters in this book is immense would be an under-statement, and I felt at times it would have helped me along in my reading if there had been a character list printed in the front of the book; I have a sneaky feeling that many other readers who pick up this book may feel the same way too. Although none of the characters stand out in the book, they are interesting to say the least, and the main protagonist is very interesting; he is cranky, complicated, lonely and extremely loyal; all traits which seemed at odds to the world in which he was living, a world where loyalty seemed to be as fleeting as the wind.

Despite the indication in the synopsis that this may have edged into the realms of a genre I never read, I found there to be little to no romance in this book; there is no love in the traditional sense of the word and no homoerotic longings as can often take place in a novel of this kind. What there is however is political intrigue by the boatload, and this made the book a compelling read and was, for me, the saving grace that earned the rating of 3 thumbs as opposed to it being lower.

It is obvious that the Author has done a lot of research into this era in Florence’s history, and I found this interesting and educating as I did not know about some of the historical details touched upon in the novel. I felt this was helped by the fact that the main protagonist was actually a real-life figure in these times, and this added more realism to the descriptions used and the events encountered in the book.

I would recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction but particularly those who like a good solid mystery that is full of political intrigue.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/04/22/review-the-sign-of-the-weeping-virgin-five...




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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TheAcorn | 3 other reviews | Nov 8, 2019 |
http://www.alanawhite.com/the_sign_of_the_weeping_virgin_112597.htm

An interesting but ultimately unsatisfying mystery of the historical figures Guid'Antonio Vespucci, a lawyer in 15th century Florence and his nephew, the [future] explorer, Amerigo and how they solve the mysteries of a disappeared girl and why a portrait of the Virgin Mary weeps. Guid'Antonio does not feel, like many townspeople, she weeps because of Lorenzo di Medici's trying to grab for actual power: he IS already the unofficial ruler. There is much intrigue involving the then-pope, Sextus IV, and excommunication of all of Florence. The novel moved slowly until near the end where things were revealed little by little. Doggerel written by Botticelli almost invisibly on his "St. Augustine" portrait contributed to a major breakthrough. A famous painting exists of Guid'Antonio, a middle-aged man in profile, dressed in his red lawyer's robes among a group of townsmen.… (more)
½
 
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janerawoof | 3 other reviews | Sep 6, 2017 |

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