Anna Mazzola

As Rome recovers from the plague outbreak in the mid-17th Century there are still men dying. However, these men don't show the normal symptoms and their bodies don't decay as they should. Young prosecutor Stefano is tasked to investigate and, keen to make his name, he makes enquiries. These lead him to the 'aqua', a colourless, tasteless poison which originated in Sicily and to a group of women determined to escape from the cruelty of their menfolk.
I really got engrossed in this novel as the writing is really spare and hypnotic. There are aspects of the supernatural of which I am not a fan but not enough to make me dislike the story. Reading the endnotes I was surprised to see that it is based on a true case with only a few minor alterations for plot enhancement and I have to praise Mazzola for weaving such an excellent story.… (más)

I didn't know what this was about, I read it because I really liked the author's other book 'the clockwork girl', which was a haunting mystery in the 18th century.
This one has the same gripping, eerie atmosphere, but an entirely different setting. From the first few pages it sucks you into the grim, constricting world of facist Italy and dread only grows with every page. From the start it's clear that this will go horribly wrong and I was still glued to the pages.
The author has a true talent for creating a haunted house type feeling and it's great.

One of the downsides was that it felt heavy handed at times. Books should show instead of tell, and I felt like this one did a bit too much telling. Eva spells out every single argument and line of thought in arguments with her Jewish and homosexual friends. She draw a parallel between people keeping their heads low and her mother who was trying to avoid her father's violent outbursts, but made it slightly too obvious. Where is the line between accepting life as a lamb to the slaughter and making the best out of a terrible situation?

Eva chooses the latter. At some point she says: "Of course it bothers me, more than that it distresses me. Sometimes I almost don't want to think about it. Sometimes I just want to be able to live my life, the same as everybody else does, and focus on things I can control."
The main story is slow, following Eva as she does exactly that. The teaches the daughter of a rich bachelor piano and falls for the fake security that his house and money buys.
I felt like the first part had too much about this guy charming Eva. Everyone knows from page 1 that it's a bad idea. He is a facist and his house is possibly haunted, duh.
Instead, I wanted more of her friendship with Mirella, who is jewish and Ettore, who is gay. All they do in the first half is argue. Mirella wants to flee the country and Ettore wants to join the resistance and I would have liked to see more about the three different approaches to the rising facism.
Fight, flight or freeze.

Oh and the dog doesnt die, that's also important.… (más)