This has all the hallmarks of being a major success and it would come
as no surprise were it to be made into a film. Written in a deftly
assured manner it brings together passion and love, fantasy and legend
- just who was the 'dark lady' of Shakespeare's sonnets - as well as a
chillingly suspicious death - had gifted student stumbled upon a
literary coup worth killing for - with poetry from the great Bard
himself. Incredibly atmospheric of time and place it criss crosses
between both America and Italy until with bone-chilling intensity this
seductive literary thriller reaches its climax. Fans of Kate Mosse's Labyrinth and Donna Tartt's Secret History will love it.
As an undergraduate, Renaissance poetry lecturer Dr Rose Asher spent a year in Tuscany at the villa La Civetta - once the home of poet, Ginevra de Laura, who, according to local legend, was the infamous 'dark lady' of Shakespeare's sonnets, and the great love of his life. When Rose's most gifted student, Robin Weiss, dies in mysterious circumstances, Rose finds herself reluctantly agreeing to return to La Civetta in an attempt to find answers. The screenplay Robin wrote just before his death controversially suggested that the love affair between Shakespeare and his 'dark lady' was conducted on Italian soil. It has garnered Hollywood interest and much professional rivalry among Rose's academic colleagues - who are all intent on finding out the truth. But if Robin had indeed discovered proof of Shakespeare's connections to La Civetta, was it really a literary coup worth killing for?
