In this captivating debut, Christi Phillips blends fact and fiction, suspense and sensuality into a vibrant, richly imagined novel in which a modern historian uncovers a courtesan''s secret role in a shocking conspiracy of seventeenth-century Venice. Claire Donovan always dreamed of visiting Venice, though not as a chaperone for a surly teenager. But she can''t pass up this chance to complete her Ph.D. thesis on Alessandra Rossetti, a mysterious courtesan who wrote a secret letter to the Venetian Council warning of a Spanish plot to overthrow the Venetian Republic in 1618. Claire views Alessandra as a heroine and harbors a secret hope that her findings will elevate Alessandra to a more prominent place in history. But an arrogant Cambridge professor is set to present a paper at a prestigious Venetian university denouncing Alessandra as a co-conspirator -- a move that could destroy Claire''s paper and career. As Claire races to locate the documents that will reveal the courtesan''s true motives, Alessandra''s story comes to life with all the sensuality, political treachery, and violence of seventeenth-century Venice. Claire also falls under the city''s spell. She is courted by a handsome Italian, matches wits with her academic adversary, bonds with her troubled young charge, and, amid the boundless beauty of Venice, recaptures the joy of living every moment.... Layering wit and warmth into her portraits of two very different yet equally dynamic heroines, Christi Phillips shifts effortlessly between past and present in a remarkable novel that is at once a love story, a mystery, and an intriguing historical drama. Filled with beautifully rendered details of one of the world''s oldest and most magical cities, The Rossetti Letter marks Phillips''s debut as a writer of extraordinary skill and grace.
London, 1672: A vicious killer stalks the court of Charles II, inscribing his victims'' bodies with mysterious markings. Are these the random murders of a madman? The deadly consequence of a personal vendetta? Or the grisly result of a hidden conspiracy? Cambridge, 2008: A Trinity College history professor is found dead, the torn page of a seventeenth-century diary in his hand. His death appears to be an accident, but the college''s newest Fellow Claire Donovan and historian Andrew Kent suspect otherwise. The professor''s last research subject was Hannah Devlin, a physician to the king''s mistress and the keeper of a diary that holds the key to a series of unsolved murders in 1670s London. Through the arcane collections of Trinity''s Wren Library, the British Library, and the Royal Society, Claire and Andrew follow the clues Hannah left behind, unearthing secrets of the past and present as both stories unfold to their shocking conclusions.
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