Customer Reviews

Bella Donna: A Renaissance Mystery Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you want a relaxing afternoon read, this one is for you. Put yourself in the hammock, or curl up in your favorite chair and transport yourself to Renaissance Italy.

I tell you, after a multitude of women as coroners, feisty private eyes, 24/7 career types, Giuditta, the sleuthing cook is refreshing. Emilia, daughter-in-law of the matriarch, Caterina, is murdered. Bella, the other daughter-in-law, who never got along with Emilia, is arrested for the murder. Giuditta vows to prove the innocence of Bella with whom she has a warm and respectful relationship.

It is more what is missing from this mystery novel that makes it appealing. There is no real blood and gore. Action without plot is missing. And we don't have to pine over the ups and downs of the intimate relationships of the heroine. Giuditta does develop an intimate relationship along the way with Angelo the artist, but it is a warm and easy going intimacy that adds to the story.

This mystery is different. Different in the immense attention to detail, and the use of superb prose to set the scenes. One is transported to the time and place. You feel the heat, dust and dirt in a palazzo. You sweat with Giduitta as she travels miles on foot to gather information. The characters are many and the Italian names a bit confusing. It reminds me a bit of P.D. James. You do have to work some brain cells on this one, and that too is a refreshing difference from many of the popular mysteries of today.

The author has woven a tale of mystery that gives pleasure, and a reassurance that there really are still mystery writers that can write above the 10th grade reading level.

If you enjoy mysteries, you'll be disappointed. The reader is not given any chance to solve the puzzle... the author simply trots out a series of (uninteresting) revelations.

Like character development? You won't find it here. The characters are one-dimensional.

The writing is awkward, filled with disconnected, jarring observations, and laughable lines like, "A fortissimo cry erupter from Bella's mouth."

The author also seems to believe that by sprinkling Italian words through the book, she makes it more authentic. (The words are printed in italics, just to be sure the reader doesn't miss them.)

Don't waste your time on this book!

The characters were fun -- i loved the cook heroine and the food and recipe references. However, the book isn't very well fleshed out. It is as tho it is still in semi-outline form, and the mystery itself is not very difficult to figure out. I would have liked to have learned a great deal more , and was disappointed with the sketchiness of the novel. That said, it WAS fun and different, and it certainly is a nice, quick read!

In this story full of historical details about Florence in the 1490s, a wealthy Florentine family's cook, Giuditta, sets out to exonerate her patron, the family's much maligned daughter-in-law Bella. Bella has been accused of murdering her mother-in-law, and her innocence now depends on Giuditta's ability to track down clues proving her innocence. Luckily, Giuditta, being a servant, can search in places that rich Florentines never could. A fun story.

It's difficult to believe that the author of this stiff, amateurishly written novel is a journalist who has written three other novels, After plodding through this one, I certainly wouldn't seek out her other works!

Although the emphasis on food was fun and Giuditta the Cook an unusual heroine, the plot is lame; the descriptions and dialogue are awkward, the writing style just about non-existent, and the ending totally flat.

After reading some marvelous novels set in the Renaissance, such as Michael Ennis's "Duchess of Milan," or Diane Haeger's "Courtesan," this book in comparison reads more like an effort produced for a college writing class.

Don't waste your money on it.

The biggest assert this novel possesses is its vivid imagery (food, clothing, country side, etc.) and it's brilliant descriptions of the city of Florence in 1494. Another assert that this mystery novel possesses is its determined, intelligent and unlikely heroine, Giuditta. The mystery itself is a rather straight forward one, with very few twists and turns. And as another reviewer pointed out certain details, and the manner in which Giuditta arrived at resolution of the mystery, are rather sketchy. Nonetheless, this is a rather delightful little mystery.

When Emilia Novella, the quarrelsome wife of the elder Novella son, Carlo, is found dead in the courtyard, it is almost certain that she was murdered. Evidence points to the fact that Bella, the wife of Carlo's brother, Domenico, with whom Emilia had a rather acrimonious relationship, is the murderer. However, Giuditta, the cook, and Bella's only friend in the household, refuses to believe that Bella murdered Emilia. And almost at once she uncovers evidence that Bella was framed. But by whom? The finger of suspicion points to someone in the Novella family. Was it Emilia's own daughter, Antonia, who had quarreled bitterly with her mother over her right to choose her own husband? Or could it be Bella's own husband, who seems distractingly unconcerned that Bella has been arrested for Emilia's death? Angry with the Novellas for their lack of concern about Bella's fate. Giuditta vows to discover who murdered Emilia and framed Bella. With her best friend's help, Giuditta begins to look more closely at each member of the Novella family, and realises that she is close to making a discovery when first she is warned off the investigation, and when later, the murderer begins to stalk her. However Giuditta is firmly resolved to help her friend, no matter the cost. Will she be able to unmask the murderer before Bella's trial, and before she herself becomes the victim of this determined killer?

I enjoyed reading "Bella Donna" very much, in spite of the fact that the mystery was a little sketchy. I do wish however that there had been more character development overall, and that Cherne had gone into more detail with regards to the motives and backgrounds of the suspects. Barbara Cherne's vivid descriptions of the city of Florence however truly does bring the city to life (but a map of the city, and all the places Giuditta visited would have been nice). Cherne also successfully portrayed the rather stiff and cold family dynamics of the Novellas. The clever play on the phrase 'bella donna' was a nice touch too. "Bella Donna" was a really fun read, and I hope that Barbara Cherne will write more Giuditta mystery novels in the future.

This book is so thrilling that you will never want to put it down! If you have it for school reading, you won't want to stop a the appointed boundaries! Just when you think that you know who killed Emilia Novella, you are dead wrong. This book takes so many interesting turns that it will boggle your mind for days. This book stays with you as a great novel and great history book as you peak into the lives of a Renassaince family!

This book is a great murder mystery novel that leaves you guessing until the end, and provides plenty of clues for you to have several suspects at once. It also provides alot of interesting and even shocking information on life in the rennaissance, and the class and gender differences of the time. It is a really fun read and doesn't have a lot of blood or gore, but is still extremely suspenceful.

This is perfect if you are traveling to Italy - particularly to Florence. While the plot is fairly thin, it is a night mystery that focuses more on describing life in 1490's Florence. The cooking will whet your appetite for Italian cooking. If you are one of those people who loved history, but were always wondering what everyday life was like for "the ordinary folk," then this is for you.

Barbara Cherne offers up her third novel in Bella Donna. Cherne is a former journalist and holds memberships in Sisters in Crime, the National Writers Union, and the Women's National Book Association. She currently resides in Los Angeles.

Set in 1494 in Florentine Italy, Bella Donna takes place about the same time as Columbus' journeys to the New World. Told from the viewpoint of Guiditta, the cook in the Novella family, complete with tantalizing descriptions of her cooking, Bella Donna is a murder story. The Novella family is a cold one, and when Emilia, wife of Carlo Novella, is found viciously murdered in the courtyard with her sister-in-law Bella's necklace lying beside the body, Bella is unceremoniously thrown in prison, where she will stand trial for her life. She languishes in jail while her husband, Domenico, frolics with his mistress:

"The slenderness of Paola's arm, the fan of bones beneath the back of her hand, the small knobs at the wrist, always astonished him after his long familiarity with Bella's fleshy abundance. His gaze traveled toward the end of the bed, where a small carving of a woman, gilded from the top of her ringlets to the waves of her hem, rested high on the wall. The ringlets, with their dark blonde hue, were like Bella's springy curls; that hair, her pride, swarmed in dirty coils around her shoulders the last time he had visited her in prison."

Bella Donna is a lilting, exquisitely written mystery set in an "upstairs; downstairs" milieu. As Bella's friend and only ally, Guiditta must unravel the thread of conspiracy that has permeated the Novella household for decades. As a servant, Guiditta's life is not worth much, and the paid assassin who torments her lends suspense and danger as she pursues her investigation.

Cherne handles the varying roles of women in Bella Donna with finesse, as the reader is lead through the various labyrinths that each woman's role locks her into. Bella Donna is as much about women's liberation as it is about murder, and Cherne teaches us well. Guiditta is an instant success as a heroine, and her lover, the artist Alessandro, lends beauty and a sweet passion to the darkness Guiditta lives with. Bella Donna is an understated crime tale about good winning over evil, and the reader has fun reading about recipes in the process.

Shelley J. Glodowski, Reviewer