Set in the times of the Italian revolution, this story centers around the nobility of Sicily and the mysterious disappearance of the Duchess of Motta and her newborn son, heir to the fiefdom and title. Her brother-in-law, her husband's younger brother steps into the title when learning of his brother's death and for decades is hiding a deep, dark secret. But there is a secret society called the Beati Paoli which could be considered an early version of Robin Hood, wants to set things right for the true heir of the palazzo de motta, and will set things in motion to see that this wrong is righted. The group hides in the dark, meets in secret and knows things as if by magic. Also coming into the picture is Blasco da Castiglione, who doesn't know his true parents and was influenced by several priests as he grew up. Blasco is a righteous hero figure who always wants to do the right thing. He is a handsome smooth talker who is very adept with a sword. There is a corrupt lawman who will stop at nothing to line his pockets keeping secrets of rich members of the nobility and the beautiful young wife of the Duke of Motta, Donna Gabriella whose life is full of bland days until she meets Blasco though she does make obligatory trips to visit Violante, her husband's only child, who lives in a convent.
This is a very long read and at times, I was bored out of my mind, skipping page after page until something about the Beati Paoli began again. How they were going about trying to give back what was usurped by the current Duke de Motta was intriguing. The members of this society were unknown, even to each other as they wore masks to keep anonymous. I also enjoyed Blasco who just lived life and had a true and generous nature, helping anyone who was in need.
But, this author couldn't really imagine a woman character. Page after page after page of Gabriella whining and playing mind games and acting like a child out of jealousy was so tiring and tedious. She was such a 2 dimensional character as was Violante but for other reasons. She was so immature and unworldly. And Emanuele was such a rotten, obnoxious and unlikeable character. In his mid teen years, he learns of his parentage and suddenly becomes so entitled and unappreciative to the people who became his parents, I wanted to throttle the brat myself! After the length of the book, the Epilogue was almost comical as it tied things up in about 2 pages!
I did appreciate the research the author did to give such authenticity to Sicily during those times.

This is a fascinating book with so many characters. It definitely pulls you into the story immediately with so much intrigue and darkness. There were moments when I thought I could not finish because at times it just seemed to drag without encounters and actions that didn’t serve to move the story forward, but ultimately I had to keep going. The writing is superb and the historical perspective is educational and interesting. It is a long, long story but worth the time to follow Blanco and his adventures.

This historical fiction is brilliantly presented. It is not for the light reader as it consumed me for more than 10 hours,
included notes and had me checking pronunciation and locales as I read the story. The task of translating from the
original must have been quite a task, (which was undertaken with love to honor the Authors late daughter, Melissa)
This is a book best enjoyed with your own paper copy to allow notes, and so you can better enjoy the charts and photos.
For the serious historical fiction fans, this is a must!
My thanks to Radius Book Group, via. NetGalley for the download copy of this book for review purposes.

This is a work of historical fiction that gives a picture of Sicily in the aftermath of what we in the US call The War of Spanish Succession. The years covered are with the first quarter of the 18th century. The author’s major work is a history of the Beati Paoli which is a secret society that is sometimes portrayed as a Robin Hood sort of outfit that sets things to right. In that, the Beati Paoli operates much like the mob of the Godfather movies and books or for that matter, the recent TV show, Sons of Anarchy. In all three, the outlaws have investigative powers that make Interpol seem like 12 year olds at play plus they always side with the cause holding the morally high ground. While the Beati Paoli exists in this novel playing a vital role, it’s not the protagonist. That role is shared between a new element on the scene as well as the evil plotter.

The prologue is an exciting story of palace intrigue caused by the primogeniture in practice at that time and place. This gives the first born son rights to the entire estate leaving those males born later as nobles without given property. The adventures of these second and after born males are a key to many a tale both in fiction and reality but here it manifests as a second born discontent with his status so sets into motion the foundation of the novel. The true heir disappears and many years later, a mysterious look alike shows up making no claims but insinuating himself into the society that the true heir was born into. Who is he? Did the true heir survive all these years somehow? If so, where’s he been?

The tone of the novel is true to the Victorian times it was written in. it varies from baroque to bombastic the latter giving it an authentic Italian voice. The flashback narratives could easily fit into a new Arabian Nights story while I found the background of noble life in Sicily to be tedious. There’s a great deal of the 18th century version of office politics but before there were true business offices. There are sections where many pages go by not moving the plot forward citing names that likely were real people of the time as the island was shaken by its changed status after the war.

I think this novel for our times needed an editor to cut out 80% of the baroque fru-fru that doesn’t impact the plot but which was so loved by readers over 100 years ago. That aspect of the novel does give an authentic Victorian (Italian style) flavor to the read but so often I wished the author would cut it out and get back to the mysterious nobleman and the unwinding of the plot to determine if he’s the missing heir and if so, what can he and his secret society do about it?

In sum, this is a modern mystery thriller core but with more color added to it than the action plot. The bad guy is wholly bad. The mysterious noble is an entertaining character worth of his own film. The women tend to be put upon hot babe nubiles aside from the witch. I enjoyed imagining the pomp and plots of that time as well as learning something about history not as much as from the novel as doing my own research when my interest got piqued by the related events. Yet after a while I got tired of the stage setting and wished to get on with the play. In the end, it was an interesting but also somewhat fatiguing read.

Heady and deep read. Will appeal to patrons looking for a more challenging historical novel. Very descriptive and more formal language.

This book really does feel like a Dumas story, with plenty of action, intrigue, suspense, and danger, to keep the reader turning the page. I look forward to reading book 2 when it's hopefully released.

Excellent historical fiction catches the reader wondering if it really could be true. The research done to produce this thrilling story keeps the reader entranced and amazed. The words on the page create pictures and thrills throughout the story.