The latest installment in the series that began with The Beekeeper's Apprentice.
Russell is asked by a friend from her college days to find out whether the friend’s aunt (a wealthy heiress) has disappeared of her own free will, has been kidnapped, or has suffered another mental breakdown.
Russell’s search for Vivian Beaconsfield leads her from Bedlam Hospital to Venice. Fortuitously, her husband Sherlock Holmes has agreed to a reconiassance mission for his brother Mycroft, who needs someone to assess the potential threat posed by the rise of the Fascists in Italy. Too many right wing politicians in England think that a strong man like Mussolini is what's needed to keep the masses under control --- and not just in Italy.
Russell hunts for evidence of Vivian’s presence among the expatriate community drinking and carousing on the Lido, where she insinuates herself into the fast company of Elsa Maxwell. Meanwhile, Holmes gains entry into the household of the American composer Cole Porter and his wife Linda. The Porters drop millions of lira into the local economy, but their guest lists are more exclusive, focusing on people of power and influence, including the Venetian Fascists.
One of the reasons this series is so much more satisfying than other Holmes pastiches is not just Russell’s character but the way that she has absorbed Holmes’ methods and applies them with the different sensibilities of both her generation and gender in a new century.
There are two serious themes lurking beneath the mysteries here. One is the rise of fascism in 1920s Europe and how easily the fascists took control of Italy. Any similarities between that situation and xenophobic regimes today are likely intentional.
Likewise the mystery that takes Russell to Venice in the first place. Her friend’s aunt was committed to Bedlam, the psychiatric asylum in London, for years. She stayed on there voluntarily when she could have left. Now she has disappeared. Russell realizes the real mystery is why she was committed in the first place.
Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.
Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.
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