It's 1498 in Venice, Italy. Luciano is a homeless street beggar. He survives by pickpocketing and stealing food from street merchants. Until one day he is literally dragged from the streets by the Ferro, the top chef to the Doge. Luciano is brought into the Doge's palace as an apprentice to Ferro. He goes from begging for his meals to three hot meals a day and a warm, dry place to sleep.
Luciano witnesses a murder and immediately reports it to the Chef. The Chef doesn't seem to be very surprised. There has been discussion about a mysterious book of knowledge, a book that, among many things, reportedly has a spell for everlasting life. The doge, suffering from syphilis, becomes obsessed with finding the location of this book. The Catholic Church wants to obtain it because it's said to contain the missing books of the Bible, and if these land in the wrong hands, the Church will lose it's strength over the populace. And finally, Luciano himself is interested in the "love potion" the book purportedly contains, for he has fallen in love with Francesca, a young nun.
Luciano soon learns that book everyone is searching for is not some spell book, but one that is right under their noses.
The Book of Unholy Mischief
is a very descriptive and engaging story. It is evident that Newmark did her research, for the descriptions of Venice and of Rome are detailed and accurate. The descriptions of food are so vivid, I swear I could taste and smell the lavish meals.
Critiques of this book mentioned its similarities to The DaVinci Code. I don't believe this to be a fair comparison, for The Book of Unholy Mischief
has much more depth. The characters are more compelling and developed. It's not only a story about the hunt for a mysterious book, but also deals with the lives of the two main characters and how fate seemed to have brought them together.
Bottom line, this is a book I waited far to long to discover!
Thank you to the author for providing a copy of this book for me to review!