On a trip to Prague to visit an exhibition of precious objects of alchemy, Lorenzo Aragona finds himself caught in the dark murder of an old antiquarian, also fond of mysteries. He is suddenly catapulted into a hidden and disturbing world, run by a mysterious brotherhood that will force him to return to Naples.
Helped by the Masons in the deciphering of a series of puzzles, but under the blackmail of shady figures who are threatening to kill him and those he holds dearest, Lorenzo finds himself in front of a real alchemic puzzle, which brings him back to studying the experiments of the famous Prince of Sansevero, who lived in Naples in 1700.
The recovered traces, however, lead him away from his city, to France, looking for a stunning cathedral, containing nine mysterious mirrors. But what is this cathedral and what powerful secret is it hiding?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
My Review: (Thanks to NetGalley)
I didn't realise this was the second book in a series when I started, the first (in English) is the Alchemist's Code (though Goodreads won't tell you that, all the links go the Italian book versions). After reading the blurb for book 1, I realised I had actually tried to read it not long ago and had given up because it annoyed me! lol. Good thing I didn't realise because book 2 wasn't anywhere near as bad, in fact it was alright.
Very reminiscent of the Da Vinci Code genre, it was fun running around the place but I found it very fast paced (for a reason) and combine that with bits of foreign language and a foreign city (to me) it left me with a bit of a headache trying to follow along. It didn't help that the two ancient alchemists Prince Sansevero and Count Saint-Germain that the mystery was based on had multiple names each. The bad guy I have to say was really obvious right from the start, but they may be either because I am extremely cynical, read to much, or the book followed the evil cliche pattern a bit too closely.
There is a third book in Italian (I think, there are a bunch of different versions and a prequel I think, Martin Rua's website is confusing) but I don't think I'll bother if it gets released in English unless I can get it for free from NetGalley again.
No comments:
Post a Comment