The Abduction: A Novel (Carnivia Trilogy, The)
This second installment in the Carnivia trilogy (following The Abomination, 2013) returns to Venice, a setting that embodies beauty and decay. Holt also brings back Venetian carabiniere capo Kat Tapo, a woman who likes the dark side of Venice a bit too much for her own safety. The mystery centers on the kidnapping of a young American girl from a sex party during Carnivale. The girl’s parents are both attached to the controversial and unpopular new U.S. military base outside Venice. The kidnappers use the Internet to show the parents exactly what kind of tortures their daughter is undergoing (readers may well feel uncomfortable at the graphic details the author presents). At the same time, a skeleton found near the American airfield proves to be that of a famous Italian Resistance officer, and other developments point toward an explosive revelation about the papacy during WWII. Holt gives us excruciating suspense in the kidnapping narrative, suspense that’s heightened by also presenting the victim’s shifting point of view, from a benign “This is a matter of business” to unraveled terror. --Connie Fletcher