Publisher's Synopsis
'A master of historical crime fiction' Guardian
'A writer in full command of his subject' Mail on Sunday
'Martin's novels are works of literature, not simply puzzles' Financial Times
The Talented Mr Ripley meets A Room with a View in this dark and irresistible historical novel featuring Monica: a fourteen-year-old girl with a disturbing imagination . . .
Venice, 1911. Monica is a fourteen-year-old with a wild imagination and an unbearably dull governess named Rose Driscoll. She was supposed to be entering the most exciting time of her life but, with her parents and uncle now dead, she has been forced to leave leafy Hampstead and move to a flat on the busy Holloway Road with a woman who is living proof that an exciting life is not guaranteed.
Driscoll has dutifully planned this trip to Venice, as directed by a 'letter of wishes' in a will, but on the very first morning, as the sunlight streams through the curtains of their Palazzo, Monica wakes up to a horrible realisation: has she killed her only guardian?
Too scared to find out the truth, Monica flees her room and immerses herself in the mysterious streets, canals and squares of Venice, all the while her thoughts spinning back to a dark childhood in London and her fear of what the future holds.
