The Light in the Ruins (Vintage Contemporaries)
*Starred Review* Best-selling and versatile novelist Bohjalian (The Sandcastle Girls, 2012) returns to crime fiction in his fifteenth novel. In Florence in 1955, Francesca Rosati—still beautiful and aloof, though grieving for her husband and children—is murdered, her heart wrenched from her body. A serial killer is at work, preying on the Rosati family. Serafina Bettini, Florence’s only woman detective, wonders if the war has something to do with this gruesome vendetta. In extended flashbacks, we see Francesca and her children living with her dignified and generous in-laws at the Villa Chimera. This lush Tuscany estate becomes a magnet for Nazis, allies turned occupiers, who are fascinated by a newly discovered Etruscan tomb. Francesca’s young, lovely sister-in-law stokes an already combustible situation by falling in love with a Nazi lieutenant, and soon the gentle Rosatis find themselves trapped, forced to host Nazi officers while a determined band of partisans takes shelter in the Etruscan ruins. Serafina, severely scarred by burns suffered during the war, hunts not only for the serial killer but also for answers to the mystery of her own survival. Mastering matters subtle and grotesque, Bohjalian combines intricate plotting and bewitching sensuality with historical insight and a profound sense of place to create an exceptional work of suspense rooted in the tragic aberrations of war. --Donna Seaman--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.