Starred Review. Courtroom buffs captivated by such media circuses as the Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson trials should relish Vella's retelling of a crime that in its day was as notorious. The 1902 stabbing of an aristocratic Italian doctor in his home in Bologna led to a massive investigation and the arrests of his widow, his brother-in-law and several others. While there was little genuine mystery about whose hand landed the fatal blows (one of which was powerful enough to shatter the victim's breastbone)—the brother-in-law confessed in an effort to spare his sister from prosecution—there were enough unanswered questions, as well as salacious rumors, to captivate the Italian public for years. The widow's complex, and possibly incestuous, relationships with her brother and father, as well as her extramarital affair, all invited scrutiny and piqued public curiosity. Despite an occasional lapse into an artless simile ("like the silkworms on his mulberry trees, he spent his days on the estate"), Vella has repeated the success of her earlier Intimate Enemies with a gripping narrative filled with complicated and enigmatic figures that should enthrall a wide readership. 16 pages of b&w photos, not seen by PW.
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