Customer Reviews

The Night Villa: A Novel

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THE NIGHT VILLA, award-winning author Carol Goodman's sixth novel, begins with a tragic shooting on the campus of the University of Texas in Austin. It involves the jealous ex-boyfriend of student Agnes Hancock, who opens fire on a classroom filled with students and teachers, and ends up taking two lives before turning the gun on himself. Injured in the attack is Dr. Sophie Chase, who bravely attempted to thwart shooter Dale Henry and ends up being shot in the chest, causing serious damage to her lungs.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, Dr. Elgin Lawrence puts together a team of experts (archaeologists, historians, theologians and a student) to travel to Italy as part of a project sponsored by a philanthropic billionaire. Dubbed the Papyrus Project, it revolves around the use of new spectrograph technology that allows ancient scrolls to be scanned and interpreted. The texts in question are located in the Villa della Notte --- the Night Villa --- and had been buried under centuries of ash and debris following the devastating eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79.

The narrator, and main focus, of THE NIGHT VILLA is Dr. Sophie Chase, and her reason for participating in the excavation is not just to escape the tragic campus shooting. Sophie also leaves behind the memory of her former lover, Ely Markowitz, who she has lost to his obsession with the Tetraktys, a cult that worships and follows the teaching of Pythagoras. The ritual of becoming a full-fledged Tetrakty consists of immersion at one of their communes and a five-year vow of total silence with no communication to the outside world. With Ely all but lost to Sophie forever, she has renewed interest in joining the Papyrus Project. During the excavation of the scrolls found at the Night Villa, an ancient story begins to reveal itself --- a diary scribed by Phineas in A.D. 79 that prominently features a young slave girl named Iusta --- and unearths a subterranean labyrinth that provides the team with further documents believed lost forever.

Iusta's story is captivating as she proves to be more than just a simple slave girl. She is a strong-willed woman who seeks to win her own freedom from slavery in events that defy the pagan beliefs and rituals of the time and may potentially rewrite Italy's religious history in the process. What is more striking are the similarities that Iusta's tale has with the lives of both Dr. Sophie Chase and Agnes Hancock --- two modern women seeking to change their lives while revealing secrets of the past. What transpires at this point is an engaging mystery where revealing the secrets of the scrolls ends up being only one of the issues the team faces.

Goodman's books always involve characters who are complex and whose present lives seem to be incomplete until past histories are revealed and understood. The parallel stories of Sophie and Agnes with the ancient tale of Iusta is utterly fascinating, and the novel switches back and forth at times between present day and the deciphering of the latest set of ancient scrolls. Readers may easily lose sight of the fact that they are involved in a page-turning mystery as they become further immersed in the stories of these deeply layered characters who never cease to surprise you.

Being a fellow Long Islander, I had the opportunity to speak with Carol Goodman regarding the impetus for THE NIGHT VILLA. In addition to her degree in Latin, she also has extensive knowledge of Italy, having conducted research there for her prior novel, THE SONNET LOVER. It was during the book tour for THE SONNET LOVER that she met up with an old friend and Greek professor who told her about the Papyrus Project. Regrettably, he passed away in March 2008 and is named in the book's acknowledgements. Goodman's husband, Lee, even gets into the act, having penned the poems that are included here.

Goodman's novels always radiate with the tradition of Gothic literature made famous by authors like Charlotte Bronte and Daphne du Maurier, and THE NIGHT VILLA continues this tradition in admirable style.

--- Reviewed by Ray Palen

The first mystery about this novel is why the heroine is called Cory Chase on the back cover but Sophie Chase in the book. ( A late change of name? I bought my copy in Australia). The second is why Carol Goodman has lost her mojo.

I enjoyed Goodman's earlier novels which were set in the American Gothic genre similar to that of Donna Tartt (if not as morally complex). They created detailed imaginary worlds which were just real enough to be believable and the characters were engaging and at times moving. The Ghost Orchid and the Drowning Tree were particularly outstanding. But Goodman seems to have been seduced by the Chick-lit/Summer in Provence school of writing and has abandoned what she knows for fanciful, annoying stories set in idyllic Italian settings. The Sonnet Lover with its Italian lover, shopping trips, and travelogue style writing was plain depressing. In this story many of the elements are similar - academic with tragic love story seizes opportunity to go to Italy and solves historical mystery - but it is even weaker.

It is hard to believe that Goodman taught the classics as she makes historical errors and almost laughable assumptions about archaeology in Pompeii which will frustrate readers who are actually intersted in Pompeii's history. This could be forgiven if the story was enthralling but sadly it isn't. It has the feeling of a book written in a hurry to meet a contractual obligation.

Prolific writer, Carol Goodman, has created another exciting page-turner in The Night Villa. The villa of the novel is located in the Italian (Roman) village of Herculaneum that was destroyed in 79 A.D. by the same volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that buried the city of Pompeii. In the novel, Classics scholar Professor Sophie Chase is recruited as a member of an expedition to help translate ancient Greek and/or Latin scrolls that have been found at an archeological site-the Night Villa which is named for a statue of a night goddess that was found there.

Since this book encompasses ancient history, there are many references to the historical eruption of the volcano and what happened because of it. The scrolls were written by a traveler who visits the villa in his quest to study various pagan religious rites and celebrations. At least that is what the scholars initially believe. However, it seems he was also interested in a philosophy that the ancient mathematician, Pythagoras developed. There are also some fairly graphic descriptions of erotic artwork and unusual sexual practices and rites.

The Night Villa is also a romantic thriller. Therefore it is not surprising that the heroine, Sophie, has romantic history with other characters-both the good guys and the bad. There is also a subplot romance involving an ancient slave girl and the traveler. The slave girl had been the subject of Sophie's doctoral thesis and remained a point of strong interest. The liaisons between various members of the study expedition add to the intrigue that develops from the very first chapter of the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I could hardly put it down to deal with more mundane activities, like work or sleeping. Its literary style would make it an excellent book club choice.

The intriguing plot would capture readers who are fond of books such as Dan Brown's DaVinci Code as well as those who are fans of Goodman's earlier works.

Armchair Interviews agrees.

I kept thinking this book would get better. But from the beginning I couldn't connect with any of the major characters. Most of them are so shifty, are they good, are they bad? They change from page to page, chapter to chapter. So at the end I didn't care for any of the good ones or the bad ones. Including Dr Chase, who for such a bright scholar, seems like a dimwit when it comes to knowing those around her. I would suggest she never makes any friends again. The thing that I really liked about this book were the descriptions of the little towns around Naples, and some of the historical references. I read it pretty fast because I thought the mystery would get better, but it really was anticlimactic.

I am a huge Goodman fan, and especially love her first four books.

I liked "The Night Villa" but to me, it was too similar to "The Sonnet Lover" which was not a favorite of mine either.

There were too many similarities to "Sonnet Lover" for me: academic setting, trip abroad to historical house, disturbing painting on the walls, the mystery evolving through transcripts...

Don't get me wrong, this is a good book, just not a great one, in my opinion. It just did not seem "fresh" to me.

I've previously discussed on this blog how much I love Carol Goodman (see my review of The Drowning Tree here). Her books are always very well written and are intriguing, to say the least. There is almost always a mythological undercurrent to her works, which gives them a subtle complexity and makes it seem as though there is more than meets the eye. Her writing style is also very mysterious; her books give a haunting feeling to the reader that lingers on through the end of the book and beyond.

Being such a fan of Carol Goodman's, I was extremely excited to receive an advance copy of her latest work, The Night Villa. First of all, let me say that the blurb above (from the back cover of the book) simply doesn't do the story justice. There is a whole story involving Sophie's ex-boyfriend's involvement with a Pythagorean cult that isn't even addressed (although it's alluded to in the second paragraph). Though the story is a bit slow at times, there is so much going on just beneath the surface that it's difficult to whittle down to a two paragraph summary.

I really liked the main character of Sophie. She is flawed and has a tendency to be blind to what is really going on, yet it doesn't denigrate the character. She's one of those whose flaws help make her a whole person. Too often in literature, character defects aren't written well; the reader ends up hating characters who display these shortcomings. Yet Sophie's flaws make her a better, fuller character. Though her circumstances are unique, the reader can identify with her and why she thinks the way she does. She really is a marvelously written character.

Carol Goodman's ability to craft yet another novel which is rooted in so much history with so many mythological aspects astounds me. I don't know how she isn't a master of Greek and Roman mythology by this point. I can't even begin to imagine how much research must go into her novels, but however much work is required, I'm glad the author takes the time to do it well. Her books really are unsurpassed, especially because they are so unique.

I don't know what else I can say about Carol Goodman's novels except to go read one if you haven't yet.

4.5 rounded up to 5

Carol Goodman's latest takes the reader from the university setting in Austin, Texas to the island of Capri, with it's lush settings and ancient history. This novel, like her previous works, is rich in mythological references, has a strong, scholarly protagonist, and again Ms. Goodman sneaks in little clues and links to her previous books by use of the character's names. A fan of her works should be able to pick up on them without too much difficulty. "The Night Villa" was an absolute pleasure to read and I truly couldn't put it down. I thoroughly enjoy her tales, and this one has replaced "The Drowning Tree" as my favorite.

This novel has restored my faith in Carol Goodman. I was introduced to her work through the Drowning Tree, which I loved, but then I became more and more disappointed with each of her novels I tracked down after that. This book, though, is terrific, and it really lets her strengths shine.

The basic story is that a classics professor at UT (who makes all sorts of observations that will tickle those who have attended UT or just lived in Austin) witnesses an incident of violence on campus, then she agrees to work on an archeological project in Italy while she recovers physically, mentally, and spiritually. In the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius, though, she encounters an unsettling world through sexually graphic first-century Roman written and visual artwork (thankfully, the Goodman novel itself skims over most of the actual sexual content) and sinister cultic practices, both in the past and the present. Her mentally ill lover reappears in her life (which is a nice touch from Goodman after she used the idea so well in The Drowning Tree), and there are plenty of minor mythological references to validate readers who paid too much to take liberal arts classes in college.

I really only have two significant problems with the book: First, the first-century narrative is introduced and developed in the contemporary narrative in a plausible way, but the writing itself, with its direct quotes and asides and attention to certain details, never rings true. The voice was not that of a Roman author but of a contemporary author who loves the culture of ancient Rome. Second, the climax of the novel is rather blink-and-miss-it. Along the way, Goodman finally does a great job at concealing the identity of the villain, and the brief epilogue is satisfying, but the actual climax itself lacks the tension and thoughtfulness of Goodman's earlier work. Certainly, these problems should not dissuade someone from reading the book, especially not if the potential reader likes Goodman's other work, Roman mythology in general, and/or lush Italian settings, but it was disappointing to see them in such an otherwise delightful tale.

Dr. Sophie Chase is a history professor who is writing a paper on the practices of Mystery Rites performed in ancient Greece and Rome. While interviewing Agnes, one of her students, to be a candidate for traveling to Italy to decipher Latin scrolls found in Herculaneum and Pompeii, Agnes's boyfriend arrives and open fires with a gun, killing two people and wounding Sophie, who loses a lung from a stray gun shot. Together in the aftermath, Sophie and Agnes accept the invitation from a wealthy investor to work with the team of Pompeii scholars at a villa on the Isle of Capri, on what they are calling The Papyrus Project. The Night Villa it is called, named after the famous Villa della Notte, a supposed house of Mysterious Rites and sexual debauchery, and noted to be a place where a famous Roman traveler and scholar died during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D., burying Pompeii and Herculaneum. The papyrus scrolls that the team hopes to excavate are the scholar's private diaries of erotic and mysterious events that he encountered during his stay.

A little mystery, a little romance, history, archaeology, and a nice dose of mythology create one heck of a page turning bestseller out of Carol Goodman's The Night Villa. Although Goodman's writing is very good, I found the plot a little predictable, at times hard to believe, and very slow going through some of the early through middle sections. The second half of the book moves faster and offers the reader more excitement so I do feel it's worth it to keep with it to the end. There are characters on the dig that had such small parts, that I found their existence rather pointless. Even the main players didn't get much character depth from the author. So with that, I'd say this novel is not character driven but is stronger on storyline. After the initial opening chapter of the shooting scene at the university, the reader gets hopeful that this novel is going to be a great thriller packed with action and suspense. Unfortunately this doesn't happen until the last quarter of the book, but there are some decent scenes that are lively and engaging. What follows, upon arrival to the Villa on Capri, is a slow meandering story that plods along describing the interactions between the players involved in deciphering the scrolls, their attitudes towards life, love, their feelings for each other, and their daily discussions of the main scroll that is being slowly translated, the exciting diaries they have finally unearthed.

The actual reading of the scrolls, the secret diaries of Phineas Aulus is very vivid and interesting as he describes his own arrival to the villa, his introduction to a beautiful young slave girl, and is initiation to their annual revelries of Mystery Rites and sexual orgies. These sections allow the reader more pages of suspense and intrigue to keep the pages turning. The actual present day goings-on between the main characters are tedious at times, and the sideline background mystery that involves espionage with Sophie's ex-boyfriend is rather boring and I'm not sure added value to the story at all.

The book's crowning achievement really is in the historical sections where we get insight to life in Pompeii and an up and close connection to Phineas and all that he experiences at the Night Villa.

I liked this story a lot, I think it had potential to be fabulous but I cant give it more than a few stars because I think it needed more pizzazz, drama and oomph to wow the reader. It's a good story, not bad at all, just not award winning and I think most average readers would certainly find it enjoyable and entertaining.

Sophie Chase, classics professor at the University of Texas, finds herself caught up in intrigue as she joins a team of colleagues and their mysterious financial backer in Italy, searching for lost manuscripts from the first century, buried in Herculaneum when Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. The rich leader of the expedition has recreated a villa once inhabited by a rich man in Herculaneum, in which the academics set up their lab and begin to unravel the text of the last visitor to the doomed villa as they unearth them from the original site - a traveler who has left a detailed account of the mysterious pagan rites being observed just before the volcano's eruption and his involvement with a slave girl there whose story has a particular appeal to Sophie.

The book opens with a shooting at the University and Sophie's recovery and decision to join the group. One of its members is a former lover, and another is her favorite pupil, a girl whose stalker had done the shooting. Once in Capri, Sophie also begins to get hints that her ex-boyfriend, who left her because of her affair and because he had joined a radical Pythagorean cult, is lurking around every corner there in the Bay of Naples. Why is he there and who can Sophie trust? There are twists and turns and red herrings galore, but the mystery is fun and the scenery, dear to my heart because of my own love of Italy, is painstakingly depicted. This isn't the best of literary fiction, but it's appealing and the historical details are well done