First published 2005
Francesca Cappelletti descends into a cobwebbed basement archive in an Italian hilltop village. The Rome graduate student uncovers a document that changes everything. She has found a clue to The Taking of Christ, a Caravaggio painting missing for two centuries. The artist himself lived four centuries ago, drinking and fighting through Rome's streets while creating works of stunning visual power. His violent nature led to murder and exile before his mysterious death. Scholars believe sixty to eighty of his paintings survive today. Others remain lost, perhaps hanging unrecognized in churches or homes. Francesca follows the trail across continents and through hundreds of years of history. Her search leads her to Sergio Benedetti, an art restorer working in Ireland. Together they must solve a puzzle that has baffled Caravaggio experts for generations. The hunt becomes a race against time to prove the painting's identity and recover a lost treasure of Italian art.
Genres: art, historical-fiction, mystery, art-history
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, race-against-time
Setting: Italy, Ireland, Rome
Period: 16th Century, 21st Century
Hardcover · Random House