In The City of Dark Waters [Hardcover]

Jane Jakeman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2006

Jane Jakeman returns with a thrilling tale of murder, love, and the artist's life, set amid the labyrinthine canals of Venice.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, among the crumbling marble glories of Venice where the nobility still dwells in ancient palazzi, one can easily forget the breakneck pace of the outside world. Here, artist Claude Monet and his wife Alice have escaped scandal and rumor in Paris so that Claude might capture the famous Venetian light on water and marble. Their fellow guest Revel Callender is a London lawyer on a year's sabbatical, eager to learn Italian and study the galleries.

But even as they glide through the placid waters of the canals, undercurrents of intrigue are surfacing. Monet remains haunted by the Parisian murder case that brought unwanted attention to his wife. And when the powerful, age-old Casimiri family hires Callender to handle some paperwork, his fascination with the ethereal Clara Casimiri draws him into a labyrinth of legend, sexual deviation-and murder.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in Venice in 1908, Jakeman's second novel to feature Claude Monet (after 2005's In the Kingdom of Mists) offers a complex and shadowy plot in the tradition of Daphne du Maurier's Don't Look Now. Revel Callender, an English attorney taking a year off before settling down in his profession, is hired by Count Roberto Casimiri to look through the papers of a recently deceased relative born into a wealthy Anglo-Irish banking family. Soon after the count dies under bizarre circumstances, Callender travels to Paris at Monet's request to monitor the investigation of the murder of the painter's brother-in-law, which occurred several months earlier. Callender finds unusual parallels between the two killings and a 16th-century Italian scandal. With impeccable pacing and prose, Jakeman sweeps the reader into the conflict between the decadent world of the old Venetian aristocracy and the new age of a unified Italy rebuilt with American money, though be prepared for unlikable characters, incest and torture. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In the Venice of 1908, nobility live in crumbling palazzi, and expatriates sample Italian culture. Revel Callendar, a British lawyer taking a year off from his practice, is studying Italian, taking in the galleries, and even considering a stab at painting. When he meets Claude Monet, who is in Venice to escape the scandal surrounding his brother-in-law's murder, the artist asks him to investigate the crime. In addition, the British consul has asked Callendar to sort out the family papers of an elderly woman who has married into the sinister Casimiri family. Both of these cases will take him into a web of murder, corruption, and sexual depravity that is far from the beautiful art inspired by the light of Venice. Throughout, Callendar finds himself drawn to the lovely Clara Casimiri. Jakeman nails the atmosphere of turn-of-the-century Venice well, and she tells a complex tale based on historical fact. A must for historical-mystery readers. Barbara Bibel
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1ST edition (May 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425209814
• ISBN-13: 978-0425209813
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #914,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars intriguing look at Venice circa 1908, May 3, 2006

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Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In The City of Dark Waters (Hardcover)

In the first decade of the twentieth century in Venice, British Consul Theseus Barton provides fellow Oxford graduate lawyer Revel Callender with assignments that enables the English expatriate to live reasonably albeit somewhat shabbily in the city. Theseus sends Revel to the home of Palazzo Casimiri, part of an affluent English banking family, whose elderly principessa needs legal assistance with documents. Upon arrival at the Casimiri residence, Revel finds a corpse of his client awaits him.

Still hired to organize her papers, Callender finds the swinging body of Count Casimiri hanging from a tree. He sees knife wounds all over the corpse, but the police, heeding the warning advice of a powerful patrician, insist suicide occurred. Artist Claude Monet and his wife arrive having fled Paris after the scandal of the homicide of his brother-in-law. He wants Callender to go to France to investigate the murder though both the artist and the attorney know he can do nothing but report his findings to him. In Venice, while pondering Monet's request, and ignoring the police, attempts on his life, and falling in love with Clara Casimiri, Callender continues to investigate because he knows a murder occurred.

Jane Jakeman provides an intriguing look at Venice circa 1908 using an amateur sleuth whodunit to paint a picture of a morally corrupt society in which injustice is the norm. Callender is a fine protagonist whose need to learn the truth almost becomes a fixation; so much so that the self-exiled Monet knows he is the man to send to Paris on his case. The use of Monet adds to the overall feel that the reader is visiting the era, but in the end it is the exhilarating thriller elements as seemingly folks from different walks of life want Callender stopped that keep the audience reading.

Harriet Klausner