This has all the hallmarks of being a major success and it would come as no surprise were it to be made into a film. Written in a deftly assured manner it brings together passion and love, fantasy and legend - just who was the 'dark lady' of Shakespeare's sonnets - as well as a chillingly suspicious death - had gifted student stumbled upon a literary coup worth killing for - with poetry from the great Bard himself. Incredibly atmospheric of time and place it criss crosses between both America and Italy until with bone-chilling intensity this seductive literary thriller reaches its climax. Fans of Kate Mosse's Labyrinth and Donna Tartt's Secret History will love it.
As an undergraduate, Renaissance poetry lecturer Dr Rose Asher spent a year in Tuscany at the villa La Civetta and it was there that Rose began an ill-fated affair, with her married tutor. But when Rose's most gifted student, Robin Weiss, dies in mysterious circumstances - and amid accusations of plagiarism - Rose finds herself reluctantly agreeing to return. The villa was once the home of sixteenth-century poet Ginevra de Laura. Local legend insists that Ginevra is the 'dark lady' of Shakespeare's sonnets. Robin's screenplay goes further - suggesting Shakespeare's love affair was conducted on Italian soil. But if Robin had discovered proof of Shakespeare's connections to La Civetta, was it a literary coup worth killing for?
Carol Goodman graduated from Vassar College, where she majored in Latin. After teaching Latin for several years, she studied for an MFA in fiction. Her writing has been published in a number of literary magazines. She currently teaches writing and lives in Long Island, USA.
