Author Lisa Scottoline ventures into new territory with The Unraveling of Julia, trading her familiar thrillers for a work part psychological fiction, part historical fiction with a twist of a ghost story. Hitting bookstore shelves July 15, the novel follows Julia Pritzker, a recently widowed woman grappling with the traumatic murder of her husband, when out of nowhere she inherits a Tuscan villa.
Emilia Rossi, old enough to be Julia’s grandmother if she had one, has bequeathed
to Julia, a total stranger, the villa, a depleted vineyard, and a large
monetary sum. Julia is adopted so she wonders how a recluse in Italy could even
know her name or her contact information in Pennsylvania.
Julia journeys to Italy to unravel the mystery and is stunned by her
resemblance when the caretaker shares a photograph of Emilia. Evidence that a young
girl once lived in the villa stimulates Julia into imagining that she could be
on the trail of her birth mother. The crumbling villa is not enough to persuade
her to sell it as a local realtor keeps trying to tempt her with the offers he
has been collecting.
With the introduction of paranormal elements, the novel takes a turn with
Julia discovering she has a “gift,” she suffers a shock when touching a
photograph of Emilia on the Rossi crypt in the cemetery, and she experiences strange
occurrences at the villa, including visions of a long dead historical figure,
Caterina Sforza (1463-1509), an Italian
noblewoman who lived during the Renaissance. Julia learns that Emilia had long
believed that she was related to Sforza, so sure that she had a ceiling fresco
created in the villa that featured the Sforza family tree.
The action picks up when Julia meets a librarian who helps her get away
from people who have been following her ever since she inherited a fortune.
Gianluca Moretti befriends her and becomes her companion as she tries to find
answers about her inheritance and the possibility that Emilia is somehow
related to her. Julia and Gianluca become attracted to each other but she
pushes away her feelings as she buried her husband just a few months ago. When Gianluca
has a terrible accident, Julia believes her pursuers were also chasing him. The
local police are not much help, and Julia grows suspicious of them as well.
With Gianluca out of the picture, Julia is on her own to unravel the Tuscan
mystery.
Lisa Scottoline’s
visits to Italy empower her descriptions of the Italian landscape and the
various museums and architecture of the area. She has written more than two dozen novels as well as a
couple of nonfiction books with her daughter. She has been drawn to writing
historical fiction in recent years. She lives in Philadelphia with a menagerie
of horses, dogs, and cats.
My review will be posted on Goodreads starting June 30, 2025.
I would like to thank Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with
an ARC in return for an objective review.
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