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| About the Book |
Author: Linda Lappin
Publication Date: November
30, 2023
Publisher: Pleasure Boat
Studio
Page Length: 290
Genre: Historical Mystery / Art History Mystery
Captivating critics and readers, SIGNATURES IN STONE, was the OVERALL WINNER in the DAPHNE DU MAURIER AWARDS for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense Writing - best mystery of 2013
Rome,
Italy - November 2023 - Pleasure Boat Studio is thrilled to announce the
release of the second edition of Linda Lappin's celebrated novel, SIGNATURES IN
STONE: A BOMARZO MYSTERY. This captivating suspense tale takes readers on a
thrilling journey through the enigmatic Monster Park of Bomarzo, also known as
the Sacred Wood, an extraordinary Baroque sculpture garden in Italy. With the
500th anniversary of the park's creation, this edition is accompanied by a
magnificent new cover and a series of Tarot card illustrations by Santa Fe
artist Carolyn Florek.
In
SIGNATURES IN STONE, readers are transported to the atmospheric setting of the
Monster Park of Bomarzo, a sixteenth-century garden adorned with mythical
creatures believed to represent a terrifying journey into the realm of
nightmares. Against this backdrop, four travelers find themselves intertwined
in a fate-driven Italian holiday. Daphne, a British writer of occult mysteries,
her down-on-his-luck aristocratic publisher Nigel, the aspiring artist and
American gigolo Clive, and the art historian Professor Finestone, all converge
in a dilapidated villa near the park. They are attended by rustic servants who
harbor secrets of their own.
Professor
Finestone has made a groundbreaking discovery, revealing that the garden was
designed by one of Italy's greatest artists as a transformative experience that
delves into the shadow side of life. Over the centuries, the park's meanders
continue to influence the minds and destinies of those who venture within. As
the group explores their heart's desires amidst the haunting sculptures, they
become entangled in a web of intrigue and danger. When Daphne, renowned for
writing cozy murder tales, becomes the prime suspect in a shocking homicide,
she must confront her own darkness and rely on her sleuthing skills to uncover
the terrifying truth.
Linda
Lappin's gripping tale presents an intriguing exploration of gardens in
Renaissance Italy, where they were regarded as tools for altering consciousness
and changing destiny. The Monster Park of Bomarzo becomes the backdrop for a
"Gothic-in-Wonderland" phantasmagoria, immersing readers in a
suspenseful and thrilling journey.
New Edition of Linda Lappin's Award-Winning SIGNATURES IN STONE: A BOMARZO MYSTERY Commemorates the 500th Anniversary of the Monster Park.
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| SHARING A SNIPPET.... |
About a hundred miles north of Rome, we turned inland to cross a marshland,
then a succession of arid hills where broken bits of ancient Roman aqueducts
stood stark against the twilight. Farther on, deep ravines gashed the terrain
like unhealed fissures from which rose twisted masses of gray stone where
ancient houses, domes, and grottoes were chiseled along the edges. Only a great
turbulence from deep within the earth could have gouged out such chasms which
appeared before us with hardly any warning as we rolled along. Flat meadows
fell away into gorges where the road plunged, then laboriously wound up again.
Thorny bushes scraped the sides of the car in narrow spots; jutting rocks
thumped against the belly of the vehicle, causing Nigel great concern for his
axel. God knows what would have happened if the car had broken down out there
in the middle of nowhere. We might have been devoured by wolves, or by the
ferocious white sheepdogs that pounced out of the brush to run alongside the
car until their legs gave out, barking their heads off till we rounded the next
curve.
Sometimes
on a promontory we saw a cluster of houses, now all dark, or an isolated
farmhouse with a yellow glimmer at the window or a curl of smoke above the
chimney; sometimes a dilapidated church or hermitage nestled in a crevice along
a cliff. The landscape was full of signatures, signs, and hidden meanings, I
felt. An entire manuscript was displayed before my eyes, inviting me to
decipher its alphabets, offering inspiration for the new novel I had come to
Italy to write at Nigel’s forceful insistence.
Praise:
“Layers of mystery are woven into Linda Lappin's beautifully written and atmospheric historical novel set in Bomarzo, Italy's enigmatic park of stone monsters.”
~ Gigi Pandian, author of The Accidental Alchemist.
“Deftly mixing fascinating art history and murder with an exotic atmospheric setting (the Bomarzo garden actually exists), dramatic historical period (1928 fascist Italy), and fully fleshed characters, Lappin (The Etruscan) has written a hallucinatory gothic mystery in which no one is as they appear. Daphne is a most memorable, if a bit unreliable narrator. Readers looking for an intelligent summer mystery will find much to savor here.”
~ Wilda Williams, Library Journal
https://books2read.com/u/mYDWvd
About the author:
Linda Lappin, poet, translator, novelist, and travel writer is the prize-winning author of four novels: The Etruscan (Wynkin deWorde, 2004); Katherine’s Wish (Wordcraft, 2008), dealing with the last five years of Katherine Mansfield’s life; Signatures in Stone: A Bomarzo Mystery (Pleasureboat Studio, 2013,2023), overall winner of the Daphne Du Maurier award for best mystery novel of 2013; and Loving Modigliani: The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne (Serving House Books, 2020), 2021 Daphne Du Maurier award finalist and shortlisted for the 2021 Montaigne Medal for Books of Distinction.
She is also the author of The Soul of Place: Ideas and Exercises for Conjuring the Genius Loci, (Travelers Tales, 2015), winner of a Nautilus Award in the category of creativity in 2015.
A former Fulbright scholar to Italy, she has lived mainly in Rome for over thirty years. She is at work on a second Daphne Dublanc mystery novel, Melusine, set in Bolsena. The second edition of Signatures in Stone (2023) has been issued to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Monster Park.
Website:
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/LindaLappin1
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/LindaLappinAuthor/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/linda_lappin_author/
Threads:
https://www.threads.net/@linda_lappin_author
Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/lindalappin.bsky.social
Book Bub:
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/linda-lappin
Amazon Author Page:
https://www.amazon.com/author/lindalappin
Goodreads:
Twitter Handle: @LindaLappin1 @cathiedunn
Instagram Handle: @linda_lappin_author @thecoffeepotbookclub
Bluesky Handle: @lindalappin @cathiedunn.bsky.social
Hashtags: #SignaturesinStone #DaphneWinner #Bomarzo #HistoricalMystery
#BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub
Tour Schedule Page:
https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2023/12/blog-tour-signatures-in-stone-by-linda-lappin.html
You might also like
books written by Helen Hollick
Website: https://helenhollick.net/
Amazon Author Page: https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
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THE PENDRAGON's BANNER TRILOGY |
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Historical Stories of Exile by 13 popular authors Cryssa Bazos, Anna Belfrage, Elizabeth Chadwick, Cathie Dunn, J.G. Harlond, Helen Hollick, Loretta Livingstone, Amy Maroney Alison Morton, Charlene Newcomb, Elizabeth St.John, Marian L Thorpe, Annie Whitehead. With an introduction by Deborah Swift |
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Thank you so much for hosting Linda Lappin with a Snippet from Signatures in Stone today.
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Cathie xx
The Coffee Pot Book Club
as always, my pleasure
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