Customer Reviews

The Last Gondola: A Mystery of Venice

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The Last Gondola, number 7 in a series, is an exciting and intriguing mystery set in an ominous and also beautiful Venice and revolving around an expatriate Amrican detective named Urbino Macintyre, art, literature, music, gondola-making, Peggy Guggenheim, and the Armenian group of monks on a lagoon island. And more! Sklepowich takes two simple situations--objects missing from a Grand Canal palazzo and interviews with an eighty-year-old man with a notorious past--and embroiders them into a complicated story written in an elegant, old-fashioned style. He combines the classical mystery (leisurely pace, cerebral and eccentric amateur sleuth, interviews, tea, conversations, gossip) with Gothic elements such as strange noises and laughter, mad women, sinister mutes, hints of vampirism, etc. Giving more richness to the interesting multilayered story and unusual mixture are clever hints and allusions to other literary works (Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Byron's poems, mysteries, Thomas Mann's Death in Venice) in a kind of postmodern way. As Urbino says to his fashionable and aristocratic Watson, the Contessa da Capo-Zendrini, when they are gliding in his gondola down a canal, "The writers about Venice have all done it before." In the face of this undeniable truth he says that he and the Contessa must make their contributions to the Venice symphony their own. The Last Gondola does exactly this. Not only is the mystery at the center a fascinating puzzle but there are many other facets as well to give extra enjoyment to the careful reader.

Urbino Macintyre has become obsessed with the idea of writing a biography of a reclusive American living in Venice. His obsession has led to strange dreams about fire and destruction, but hasn't led to much else--until suddenly the recluse invites Urbino to visit him in his Venitian Plazio. What Urbino finds is a strangely deteriorating mansion, a strangely deteriorating man, and a mute servant with burned arms. A feeling of haunting surrounds the ancient home and Urbino feels that he is being made the butt of some monstrous plot, although he can't figure out the object.

Urbino's other tasks, including the discovery of who has stolen his friend, the Countessa's clothing, take second place to unravelling the mystery of Urbino's fellow American in Venice.

Author Edward Sklepowich writes knowingly of Venice--both the current (but not modern) city, and the city described by poets and philosophers of the ages. Indeed, much of the pleasure of THE LAST GONDOLA comes not from the mystery, but from the atmosphere of the city, of culture and secret knowledge. Hints of lost poems by Byron add to the feeling of sensation that fill this story. Mystery fans may grow impatient with the slow pace at which the mystery evolves, the strange coincidences that are contorted to make the story, and with Urbino's apparent willingness to leave all morals behind in pursuit of his personal goals, however.

THE LAST GONDOLA is a strange and interesting story. Readers with a deep interest in the fascinating city of Venice will find that the novel rewards their reading.

After his divorce and the death of his parents, there was nothing to keep Urbino Macintyre from accepting his inheritance of the Palazzo Vecello in Venice, Italy. The former New Orleans citizen embraces all things Venetian, so much so, that his good friend the Contessa da Capo-Zendrini gave him his very own gondola so that he wouldn't have to use public transportation. The two American expatriates are very good friends so it is easy to confide in Urbino that she is missing some clothing and inexpensive jewelry and is afraid she is sliding into senility.

Urbino assures her that she is as sane as he and he will use all his skills as an amateur sleuth to discover what happened to the contessa's belongings. Urbino is also obsessed with the Ca' Pozza and it's owner Samuel Possle, another American expatriate. When he finally gains entrance into the house, Possle doesn't address the question of Urbino writing a biography about him but hints that he has something that the writer wants. Little does Urbino know that there is a malevolent evil permeating the very walls of the Ca' Pozza and it somehow involves the Contessa and her missing possessions.

THE LAST GONDOLA is a very dark and atmospheric novel, gothic in scope with a brooding protagonist in the tradition of Jane Eyre's Heathcliffe. The author does such a good job of describing Venice that readers will feel that they have journeyed there. There are various subplots that slide into the main story line but readers won't realize how they intertwine until the last chapter when all the questions are finally answered.

Harriet Klausner

You don't have to have visited Venice to enjoy the mystery, but if you're a Venice lover you will enjoy the author's setting of his characters and the portrayal of the character of the city itself. Sklepowich is an elegant writer although at times that can border on the dry side. If you enjoyed the Venice portrayed in Berendt's City of Falling Angels, you will appreciate the book.