Series: Leonardo Da Vinci Mysteries | Publication Date: January 6, 2009
The first book in an exciting new series featuring Leonardo da Vinci and his young apprentice.
Court Engineer Leonardo da Vinci conjures a living chess game for the Duke of Milan using his royal court as chess pieces. But when one ‘piece’ is murdered, da Vinci’s scrupulous eye for detail is needed to find the killer.
Diane A. S. Stuckart has put her degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma to use as a yoga teacher, biker chick, purchasing agent, farm girl, and martial artist.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
DIANE A.S. STUCKART, who also writes as ALI BRANDON, is a member of that proud breed, the native Texan. She was born in the West Texas town of Lubbock, home to Buddy Holly, prairie dogs, and Texas Tech University, where her mom once taught. Most of her formative years, however, were spent in Dallas with her parents and siblings: one younger sister and three younger brothers. And then, when she was fifteen, her dad's work took them north of the Red River and into Oklahoma, settling just outside Oklahoma City.
Diane stayed in the Sooner State long enough to finish high school and obtain her degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma (where she met her husband, Gerry) before returning home to Texas again. Then, like countless others with a brand new Liberal Arts degree, she promptly took a job in retail.
To her parents' relief, however, she eventually put that diploma to good use by publishing several critically acclaimed historical romances written as ALEXA SMART and ANNA GERARD, as well as numerous works of short fiction and fantasy under her own name. Her first published novel--MASQUERADE, written under the name Alexa Smart--was a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart award finalist. She also contributed to several DAW anthologies, including A CONSTELLATION OF CATS, FAMILIARS, and SORCERER'S ACADEMY.
Now, however, Diane has moved into the mystery genre with two new series. The first is a historical series featuring Leonardo da Vinci as a crime solver. Leonardo is assisted by his trusty apprentice Dino, who has secrets of "his" own! The first installment was THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT, still available in hardcover from Berkley Prime Crime. The second book in the series, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, was published January 2009 and won the Florida Book Awards Silver Medal for Popular Fiction. The third book, A BOLT FROM THE BLUE, was published in January 2010.
Coming December 2011 will be the first novel in Diane's new contemporary series, written as ALI BRANDON. The fun new BLACK CAT BOOKSHOP MYSTERIES feature Hamlet the cat, whose unwitting new owner, transplanted Texan Darla Pettistone, runs an Brooklyn bookstore she inherited from her great-aunt. Diane also has published a collection of her short fiction on Kindle. Look for WHO'S BEHIND THE DOOR? for some great tales of mystery and suspense.
And genres is not all that Diane recently changed. Life beyond the Lone Star State continued to beckon. Succumbing to a momentary impulse, Diane finally pulled up stakes and left the plains of North Texas for the beaches of South Florida. There, accompanied by her husband, four dogs, and two cats, she now is finding new sources of inspiration among the sand and palm trees. Though she has eagerly embraced life in the Sunshine State, Diane hasn't quite accepted the fact that apparently a girl can own too many black t-shirts...at least, when she lives in West Palm Beach.
When she's not writing or working at her day job, Diane spends her time doing yoga (she's a registered yoga teacher at the 200 hour level), gardening, and making sure the pets don't get eaten by stray gators. She is also a founding member of the Gold Coast Paranormal Society, a group dedicated to searching out ghosts in the South Florida area, as well as a board member of the Florida chapter of Mystery Writers of America. And, as if she didn't have enough going already, her latest passion is belly dancing, though she admits to being pretty bad at it so far. But who can resist those great costumes! And so she keeps practicing.
Diane loves to hear from her fans, so feel free to email her and let her know what you think about writing, Leonardo da Vinci, yoga, belly dancing, ghosts, or whatever else strikes your fancy.
My assumption about a mystery series featuring Leonardo da Vinci conjured up visions of the wise and white-haired Leonardo using his vast years of knowledge and genius to wrestle with mysteries and solve crimes. However, I was delighted to find instead in this book a fresh look at Leonardo as he was in his handsome, russet-haired prime while employed as court engineer to the Duke of Milan.
The book's narrator is Leonardo's young apprentice Dino, whose master is charged by the Duke to solve a murder that occurs during a living chess game that provides the book's motif. Dino is tasked by his Master to undertake various assignments and don several disguises to help Leonardo gather clues, spy on suspects, and uncover dangerous secrets. Along the way, we also learn a surprising secret regarding Dino's true identity.
The narration colorfully evokes Milan during the Renaissance, contrasting the pageantry of court life with an apprentice's lowly station. We follow Dino's unfolding tale through a labyrinth of colorful characters who reveal their all-too-human strengths and failings. As Leonardo is viewed through Dino's eyes, he retains an important element of mystery himself, though we are given enough of his personality and genius, his powers of deduction, and his amazing inventions to make him come alive in this intriguing tale.
My hope when I read any historical mystery is for the setting to be fresh and vivid, to experience the story through appealing characters, to enjoy a page-turning plot, and to learn something fascinatingly new. In all these ways, this well-written book succeeds and provides a delightful read.
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A captivating mystery novel that unfolds in the magnificent Sforza castle of Renaissance Milan. The fast moving plot is filled with surprising twists and turns, making the book hard to put down. Besides the suspense and intrigue, one feels drawn into a colorful panorama of castle life filled with vivid characters from high ranking nobility to skilled workmen to humble servants. Of greatest interest is the unique life of the genius Leonardo da Vinci with his young apprentices, with details of their everyday tasks of mixing paints, preparing frescos, making brushes and the like. This book is not only a marvelous mystery but also a rich and entertaining cultural experience.
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From the parenthetical (a Leonardo da Vinci mystery) it seems clear that the publisher and author of this book intend to make it into a franchise. I certainly hope so, because the writing sparkles and really brings to life Renaissance Italy. The book is set in the period of Leonardo da Vinci's life in which he was the chief engineer and artist at the court of Milan. Events are told from the point of view of one of Leonardo's young apprentices, Dino, who has the misfortune to find the dead body of the cousin of the Duke of Milan when he goes missing during a living chess match which has been staged by Leonardo for the entertainment of the court.
Leonardo and Dino interview suspects and search for clues, and we are taken into the world of northern Italian nobility, artisans, and peasantry, as the two investigators turn the castle, the Sforza family crypt, and the town of Milan upside down trying to find the murderer before he or she can kill again. In reading this book, besides being enormously entertained, I learned about the history and strategy of chess, how art was created during the Renaissance, how clothing was made in the Renaissance, how Leonardo da Vinci lived and worked and a host of other things that made the time period come alive for me, which is all you can really ask of historical fiction. I would definitely have given this book 5 stars had the ending not gotten a little too complicated for its own good. And since I fully expect and look forward to reading more from this author a small note to her -- try not to introduce so many paragraphs with the words "So saying..." it was the one distraction in what was otherwise absolutely beautiful writing. I can't wait for more in this series.
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