Season of Storms [Paperback]

Susanna Kearsley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2001

In the early 1900s, in the elegant, isolated villa Il Piacere, the playwright Galeazzo D'Ascanio lived for Celia Sands. She was his muse and his mistress, his most enduring obsession. And she was the inspiration for his most stunning and original play. But the night before she was to take the stage in the leading role, Celia disappeared. Now, decades later, in a theatre on the grounds of Il Piacere, Alessandro D'Ascanio is preparing to stage the first performance of his grandfather's masterpiece. A promising young actress - who shares Celia Sands' name, but not her blood - has agreed to star. She is instantly drawn to the mysteries surrounding the play - and to her compelling, compassionate employer. And even though she knows she should let the past go, in the dark - in her dreams - it comes back.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'If you liked The French Lieutenant's Woman, you'll love this suspenseful, often better, novel' Romantic Times 'Like something out of the pages of Daphne du Maurier' Daily Express --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Jove (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0515131113
• ISBN-13: 978-0515131116
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,015,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I write modern gothic novels that blend historical adventure and modern-day suspense with romance and a touch of something spooky, so they don't fit neatly into any category, really...but they're fun to write!

I live on the north shore of Lake Ontario, east of Toronto, in Canada.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intense Romantic Suspense, August 22, 2001

By 

Sheri Melnick (Enola, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Season of Storms (Paperback)

In 1920's Italy, Galeazzo D'Ascanio was unable to see the performance of his wonderful play, Il Prezzo. Celia Sands, his beautiful English mistress and star of the play, vanished without a trace the night before the opening performance.

Now, some eighty years later, Alessandro 'Alex' D'Ascanio, grandson of Galeazzo, has contacted Celia Sands, a struggling young English actress, asking that she perform the lead in Il Prezzo, a never performed play. The Forlani Trust is restoring Il Piacere, Galeazzo's magnificent villa on Lake Garda, and the play will be performed at an outdoor theater there.

Celia isn't certain that she should take this role, since it appears that she is desired merely because she possesses the same name as the original Celia. But her mentor, pseudo-guardian and director Rupert does his best to quietly persuade Celia to take this part. And Celia ventures off to Italy and the disquiet of Il Piacere. The maid thinks that Celia's room has ghosts of its own even as Celia seems drawn to Alex whose comings and goings lend an air of mystery to the place. Add to the mix Daniela Forlani, whose possessiveness of Alex alludes to Francesca, Galeazzo's wife, who was jealous of his relationship with Celia.

Written in the first person, SEASON OF STORMS is a top-notch suspenseful novel that evolves into a truly riveting read. The mystery is not in the form of cliffhangers but a more slow-paced discovery of clues that will fall into place like the pieces of a puzzle. Rich with evocatively descriptive language, SEASON OF STORMS will transport you to another place, where murder and ghosts are a distinct probability.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating, July 31, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: Season of Storms (Paperback)

In 1921 Italy, playwright Galeazzo D'Ascanio writes what turns out to be his last play. Since his beloved mistress Celia Sands provides him with the needed inspiration, he bestows on her the honor of starring on opening night in the theater on his estate Il Piacere. However, Celia vanishes on the eve of her opportunity to attain stardom. The show never went on and whether he lost his inspiration or his soul that night, Galeazzo never wrote another play

Galeazzo's grandson decides to direct that play at the same theater that it was to first debut. He selects English actress Celia Sands, no relationship, because of her name. When she arrives at Il Piacere the modern day Celia feels an immediate affinity to her namesake especially at night. Unable to let the past stay buried, she obsessively begins to investigate what happened on that fatal night one day before this play was to first be performed.

Known for her background descriptions that feel like panoramic murals that enhance her starring charcaters, Susanna Kearsley paints a multi-layered vista. The Poe-like past counterbalances with the vivid energy of the present so that the reader is hooked in such a way that they feel they are on the grounds of the Italian estate in the now and in 1921. The modern day Sara is quite a card, as she knows that it is better to leave the past alone but cannot do it. Her compulsion turns SEASON OF STORMS into a somber Gothic like novel that verifies why Susanna Kearsley is an award-winning author.

Harriet Klausner

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-Seasoned Season of Storms, November 30, 2001

By 

Diana F. Von Behren "reneofc" (Kenner, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Season of Storms (Paperback)

Kearsley's uncanny technique of molding coincidences of the past with happenstances of the present is explored again with great success in her latest offering "Season of Storms". Here fledgling actress, Celia Sands bears the same name as the infamous lover of famous Italian lake district playwright Galeazzo D'Ascanio of the early 1900s. . . and now seemingly serendipitiously she is chosen by the deliciously understated Alessandro D'Ascanio, grandson of the famous playwright, to actually perform the lead in a recently discovered but unknown and unperformed masterpiece written by his grandfather especially for that first Celia. Upon arriving at Il Piacere in Italy, our heroine is initially fraught with many emotions, many of which stem from her fear of failure in the distinguished company of other cast and crew members. She must cope with the bald fact that legendary actress Madeleine Hedrick is playing one of the other leads and that the selfish actions of her own actress mother caused Hedrick's marital breakup. With regret, she notices that Hedrick's newest relationship with a younger man, the third actor, eerily parallels the action of the play itself-- the older woman thrown aside for a younger lover. And this is not the only coincidence, for as the actors prepare for that first performance, other mysterious incidents surrounding the play come under the scrutiny of a light from the past which floods the future of the inhabitants of Il Piacere, placing them in the wake of imminent danger.
Kearsley seems to have discovered that knack for combining a luscious setting, a questioning damsel in distress, and a contained mystery with a smorgasbord of tasty male morsels to create a tantalizing reading experience in the worthy tradition of Mary Stewart.