Suggested English title THE DARK WAYS OF LOWER VENICE: A Cornelia Furlan Investigation
Linda Ghio
Merging fantasy with Italian history and folklore, Linda Ghio creates an unforgettable and vivid world of an alternative Venice, split into Lower and Upper. In Upper all is light and glass, tranquillity and wealth but Lower is where all life is at. A powerful mysterious creature is roaming the streets. It appears to be sucking the life force out of its victims, leaving husks where there were once living humans. Initially the victims look like they might have been killed by a Lamia: women with a snake tail who live in the canals, and are peaceful but mistrusted. Captain Meneghin of Upper Venice’s guards can’t open an official investigation as that could spark civil war. The task falls to Cornelia Furlan, a strong-willed young woman from Lower Venice, who is determined to find the murderer and save her community. She has a heart condition and is kept alive by an apparatus inserted in her chest which she needs to wind up each morning. The apparatus, however, is old and starting to malfunction. Cornelia is aided in her task by Stefano, a disgraced guard who’s half-Lamia and half-human, and as such is an outcast in both communities. Initially working together reluctantly, a growing attraction develops between the two.
Incredibly vivid and believable with a brilliant cast of characters. There are orphans who move between Lower and Upper secretly and are Cornelia’s friends and informants. There is Professor Vàclav who believes he can animate dead matter. Cornelia’s landlord and friend is a crafty dwarf named Giuseppe, an inventor researching the elusive energy source phlogiston. There are glassblowers who might help contain phlogiston but the Council wants them to build weapons of war.
Tense, page-turning stuff with the odds stacked against Cornelia and Stefano and their friends. Will they save Lower Venice and each other?
‘In her debut novel, Linda Ghio transforms Venice into a labyrinth of light and shadow, where every canal hides secrets and dangers. The story unfolds through secrets and twists, where each character is a pawn on a rapidly moving chessboard, revealing, move by move, a power game centred on life itself, in all its forms. Venice is the pivotal element, its bridges rising high and descending into the depths, its rooftops and canals becoming the stage for Cornelia and Stefano’s exploits. But the mystery comes from afar, and the two protagonists can do nothing but pursue it, losing themselves in a labyrinth that seems to play with them, a maze from which only thanks to their ingenuity and their uniqueness will they be able to emerge, perhaps safe and sound.’ Il Libraio
Sales
- Oscar Fantastica/Mondadori Italy – lead title October 2025
Material: : Italian edition, pdf and complete English MS