Some critics have complained that, because we know so little of Maria Celeste's life aside from what we can read from these letters, the book is mis-titled. It is really only Galileo's story, with a twist. But in fact Maria Celeste's words uniquely reilluminate a story that has been familiarly cast as a confrontation between clear-eyed, progressive science and the hidebound reactionaries of faith. Galileo was able to grasp that science could not possibly contradict God, that a God worthy of the name would embody all science and all truth. Maria Celeste's letters of love and support during her father's trials make clear that she, to the contrary, never once questioned his faith or believed for a moment that his discoveries could reflect anything but the work of God.
History is a mosaic made ever more vivid by the addition of endless subtleties of detail.
What is engrossing about Sobel's book is that it illustrates a time when faith was life, when living and serving God seemed indistinguishable, when the Catholic Church held vast power to direct individual fates. At the same time, in the person of Maria Celeste we see the individual, human face of that same church, and all the humility and selfless spiritual devotion so notably absent in the scourges of the Inquisition. The flies are not easily fooled, however. From the presence or absence of various bugs in various stages of their lives, the forensic entomologist can conclude useful information such as when death occurred, and in cases where the body has been moved, may be able to tell where too. Now all this is quite interesting, but the question is whether it's interesting enough to sustain an entire book for a general audience.