|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
The head of a prominent Italian fashion house, Contesssa Olivia Brunamonti is an American who married an Italian count. Largely by her own efforts, she has built a comfortable life for herself and her two adult children. A gang of kidnappers has targeted her daughter, Caterina, but abducted Olivia by mistake. She is now being held for ransom in the Tuscan hills. Certain that her children will pay the ransom quickly, Olivia does not dream of the trials that she will have to endure. Either through ignorance or greed, the ransom is not paid, and Olivia is held captive for a long period of time. It is not a comfortable incarceration. She is blindfolded at all times and rendered almost deaf so that she cannot hear the voices of her captors. There is one man who she dubs the "Woodcutter" who serves as her protector and provides her with some comforts. Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia is a member of the Florence police force and is assigned to work with the family to obtain Olivia's release. As he interviews her family and friends, he reveals the ugly truth about the dynamics of the family. Olivia has been a loving and caring mother, but it appears that her affections may have been misplaced and even resented. It's very sad to see the return that she receives on what she has invested in her children. The book is largely told from Olivia's point of view and recounts in detail her experiences while imprisoned. What at first seems cruel and cold in reality turns out to be an experience that opens her mind to the important things in her life. It's almost like she is undergoing an extended period of meditation. Once she adjusts to the physical discomforts, she survives the ordeal with great dignity. I had to learn to live inside my head and to call on a lifetime of sounds and images that were stored there. I had to learn not to cry. I had to learn to eat out of duty and without hunger. I had to learn not to admit hearing those few things I could hear and not to react to deliberate torment. I had to learn to accept pain and immobility quietly so that I wouldn't go mad. I had to learn to be passive when I had always been active. I had always thought of myself as a fighter but now I had to lay down my arms. If I wanted to live, I had to stay quietly inside my body and just be. This eleventh book in the Guarnaccia series does not disappoint until the conclusion of the book. The actual release of Olivia is really not described in detail, how the events that led up to it transpired. For some reason, after Olivia is freed, Nabb chose to stray from her point of view. Thus, the reader never really sees the impact of Olivia's return to "civilization" and how her family is interacting with each other after their failures to live up to their obligation to save their mother. The resolution was extremely disappointing in that Nabb had so beautifully engaged us in Olivia's mind and soul. At the conclusion, we were at a distance from her and it was not very satisfying and some of her actions didn't seem consistent with her character. That being said, Nabb is a superlative writer whose low-key protagonist carries the investigation forward flawlessly and without pretention. Characterization is definitely the strongest aspect of Nabb's writing, and her prose is elegant.
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, December 2002
This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
