or The Dark Ways of Lower Venice
Linda Ghio
A CORNELIA FURLAN INVESTIGATION
Merging steampunk and 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 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, an irreverent detective from Lower Venice, who is determined to find the murderer. 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 investigation by Stefano, a disgraced guard who’s half-Lamia and half-human, and as such is an outcast in both communities. There is definitely attraction between the two and a ‘will they/won’t they?’ storyline.
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, so they can go on to fight new cases together?
Sales
- Oscar Fantastica/Mondadori Italy
Material: Italian and English manuscript