The Rossetti Letter
Christi Phillips, 2007
Simon & Schuster
480 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781416527381
Summary
In seventeenth-century Venice, Alessandra Rossetti becomes entangled in a dangerous political conspiracy when the Spanish viceroy of Naples and the Spanish ambassador to Venice devise a scheme to bring the Venetian Republic under the dominance of Spain.
Historians know that Alessandra wrote a letter to the Venetian Council exposing the plot, but they have never been able to determine how she learned of the conspiracy or what became of the young courtesan after the treachery was revealed.
Claire Donovan, a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University, is researching Alessandra's role in the Spanish Conspiracy of 1618. Divorced and broke, Claire has doubts that she will ever make it to Venice to complete her thesis. When she finds out that an academic rival is researching the Spanish Conspiracy for a book, she reluctantly agrees to her best friend's suggestion that she chaperone a wealthy, spoiled teenage girl on an Italian vacation.
Claire is soon on her way to Venice, where Cambridge University professor Andrew Kent is lecturing on the conspiracy at an academic conference. If Kent's theory that Alessandra was a co-conspirator of the Spanish proves right, it will destroy Claire's work — jeopardizing not just her dissertation but her future in academia.
The Rossetti Letter weaves together Claire's and Alessandra's stories in alternating narratives, bringing to life Venice both past and present. As Claire races to discover the truth about Alessandra's role in the conspiracy, she explores Venice with a beguiling Italian man, matches wits with worthy adversary Andrew Kent, helps a troubled young girl find her way, and learns a thing or two about bouncing back from heartbreak and living la dolce vita. (From the publisher.)