The assassin of Venice

Valentina Riccardi is a much-sought-after courtesan providing conversation, companionship, and sex to men in the upper echelon of Venetian society. Valentina is also an assassin. Because of her access to these men, she is uniquely positioned to cause them harm. Approached years ago by Ambrogio Malatesta of the Council of Ten to provide intelligence, she is eventually assigned to assassinate Venice's enemies. She gladly does it, as she is a passionate supporter of her adopted home. Valentina was born Maria Angelina, daughter of a prosperous and pious Roman family. Forced to flee Rome, she will do anything to keep her new home of Venice safe. But the dying words of one of her targets make Valentina question her dealings with Malatesta. The actions of her lover, another of Malatesta's assassins, further convince Valentina that something is amiss. She needs to use all her money, influence, and charm to keep herself and her loved ones safe. Shifting from young Maria in 1527 to Valentina in 1538, this is a tense, sexy work of historical fiction and political intrigue.

Courtesan by night, ruthless killer whenever duty calls. As Valentina Riccardi walks the crowded streets of Venice inconspicuously, like "an ordinary Venetian woman out for the holiday celebration" of Ascension Day 1538, her employer, politician and spymaster Ambrogio Malatesta, is close by, and so is her target, a redheaded Spaniard who's a client of her fellow courtesan Marietta. Valentina dispatches the Spaniard with ease and vanishes into the crowd in Palombo's Venice, which is beautiful, dangerous, and sensual, especially for the wealthy power brokers who patronize Valentina and her colleagues. The Venetian Council of Ten, which Malatesta controls, can be mentioned only in whispers. This highly entertaining story unfolds as a procession of tautly depicted contract killings, transactional sexual encounters, and more fervent trysts with Valentina's lover Bastiano Bragadin, all of which the courtesan narrates with cool, luxe precision. The only crack in her composure is caused by her painful separation from the couple's daughter, Ginevra, who's being raised on a farm far from the city. Valentina is torn between the luxury and vibrancy her two métiers provide and the yearning for a conventional life with her lover and daughter. But a much larger crack appears when she's assigned to kill her beloved Bastiano. In a series of "Interludes" set a decade earlier, the ebullience of young Maria Angelina, rapturously in love with her fiance, Massimo, a wealthy merchant's son, contrasts sharply with Valentina's calculating, Machiavellian mind. This backstory ends with a surprising twist that cleverly links the two plots. A juicy tale of romantic suspense, elegantly appointed. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.