The Night Villa: A Novel (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: charred scroll, mystery rites, The Night Villa, Carol Goodman, Dale Henry (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this complex and lyrical literary thriller from Goodman (The Sonnet Lover), University of Texas classics professor Sophie Chase, after barely surviving a gunman with ties to a sinister cult, joins an expedition to Capri. A donor has funded both the exact reconstruction of a Roman villa destroyed when Mount Vesuvius buried nearby Herculaneum in A.D. 79, and a computer system that can decipher the charred scrolls being excavated from the villa's ruins. Sophie's hopes for a recuperative idyll fade after her old boyfriend, who disappeared years before into the same cult as the campus gunman, appears in the area, implicating the cult in a criminal conspiracy. Meanwhile, extracts from the scrolls—the journals of a Roman visiting the villa just before the volcano erupted—shade toward bloodshed and betrayal. The scrolls' oddly modern tone aside, Goodman deftly mixes cultural and religious history, geography, myth, personal memory, dream and even portent without sacrificing narrative drive, against the beautiful backdrop of the locale with its echoes of unimaginable loss. 5-city author tour.(Sept.)
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From Booklist

Goodman has made a name for herself writing elegant literary thrillers. Her newest follows the template of The Sonnet Lover (2007), as Sophie Chase, a classics professor at the University of Texas, researches the fate of Petronia Iusta, a slave girl living in Capri in AD 79, the year Vesuvius erupted. After the boyfriend of one her students goes on a shooting rampage, leaving two dead and Sophie wounded, the handsome but rakish professor Elgin Lawrence convinces Sophie to travel to Capri to translate the scrolls of a Roman writer named Phineas Aulus. After all, evidence suggests that Petronia was at the Villa della Notte at the same time as Phineas. Upon arriving, she is soon drawn into a dangerous conspiracy when she encounters an ex-lover and learns that the Tetraktyans, a cult that worships Pythagoras, are equally interested in the scrolls—and will stop at nothing to get them. Graceful, fluid prose; an intricately plotted dual mystery set in the past and present; a strong heroine; and handsome and mysterious men—all combine to make for a thoroughly scintillating read. --Kristine Huntley

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Product Details

• Paperback: 413 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; First Edition edition (August 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345479602
• ISBN-13: 978-0345479600
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #116,246 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Night Villa" radiates with the tradition of Gothic Literature, August 18, 2008

By	Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

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

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From S. Krishna's Books, November 24, 2008

By	skrishna (http://www.skrishnasbooks.com) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not my favorite Carol Goodman book...., August 13, 2008

By	M. D. Mulhern (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.