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Laura Rahme
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The Mascherari: A Novel of Venice Kindle Edition

by Laura Rahme (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 115 ratings
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In this late medieval tale of mystery and the supernatural, Laura Rahme evokes a Venice long forgotten. From the dark sottoporticos of the Arsenal, to the wealthy mansions of Castello, and deep within the secret passages of the Ducal Palace, The Mascherari is an occult tale rich with history.

Venezia, 1422. Doge Tommaso Mocenigo is on his death bed. An evil has come to Venice. An evil that will set the course for the future of La Serenissima.

On the eve of Carnivale, five wealthy Venetian merchants set upon a mask maker in the ancient district of Santa Croce. They are led by a patrician of ruthless means named Giacomo Contarini.

The following day, the Venice Republic's security council, the most feared Council of Ten, summons the Florentine inquisitor, Antonio da Parma, to hold an inquest on a most baffling case. During a sumptuous banquet, four of the merchants, including Giacomo Contarini, have met a chilling death.

Newly widowed and fresh from Florence, Antonio da Parma's reputation precedes him. He is known for his susceptibility to the occult and is sternly warned that The Council of Ten want none of that. Yet in the throes of this macabre investigation, Antonio da Parma soon finds himself lured by his dreams and visions and by the mysterious silver pendant that he discovers on one of the dead merchants.

Enter the dashing Esteban dell Valle, a formidable Dardi-trained swordmaster of Nubian origins. Esteban grieves his stolen inheritance and the death of his Catalan adopted father. He survives, mysteriously, through the influence of high ranking patricians. He never removes his mask and has sworn to reclaim his wealth.

Noble Catarina Contarini has a sad tale to tell. Her husband's death weighs upon her and so too, do the scandalous accusations that have been made against him. In her grief, she confides in Antonio da Parma and reveals her shocking secrets. But Catarina's darkest secret concerns a witch; a Napoletana named Magdalena.

Despite himself, Antonio da Parma is drawn ever closer to the magnetic Magdalena. He unveils the truth behind the merchants' murders and comes face to face with a machination of monstrous evil.

Through this fascinating Magdalena, an enchanter of admirals and merchants alike, Antonio begins to realize that his true quest is one he could never have imagined.
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  1. Print length
    358 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    August 11, 2014
  5. File size
    5099 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
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  8. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent book; one of the best I've read lately. I really enjoyed this novel." - Judge, Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Laura Rahme turns her imagination loose, inventing a delicious, dark tale of witchcraft, byzantine political intrigue, and bacchanalian mayhem. If you're a book buyer looking for an entertaining tale, or a book blogger looking for an entertaining interview, you've just found it." - Michael Schmicker, author of The Witch of Napoli, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"This is one author to keep an eye on, not only for her talent in writing style, but in her ability as a wonderful storyteller." - Great Historicals, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Intrigue, murder and magic all play a part in this mesmerizing fusion of historical fiction, crime and supernatural set in late medieval Venice. A haunting mystery that keeps the reader guessing to the end." - Shane Krause, multi-award winning screenwriter (John Hinde, AWGIES), co-writer on the supernatural horror, The Darkness (Blumhouse), ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the Author

Laura Rahme is an French-Australian writer based in Brittany, France. She holds university degrees in the fields of Aerospace Avionics and in Psychology. While living in Australia, she worked twenty years in information technology, and penned three historical novels. The Ming Storytellers (2012) was well received by the Historical Novel Society and is an epic tale featuring real life admiral, Zheng He, and set in Beijing during the Ming Dynasty. Laura wrote the occult mystery, The Mascherari: A Novel of Venice (2014) after a short stay in Venice. Her third novel, Julien's Terror (2017), a blend of gothic mystery and psychothriller, is set during and in the aftermath of the French revolution. Laura Rahme is married to award-winning screenwriter, Shane Krause.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00MLO84K6
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ (August 11, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 11, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 5099 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 358 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 115 ratings

About the author

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Laura Rahme

Laura Rahme

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Laura Rahme was born in Dakar, Senegal where she spent her early childhood. Dakar's poverty and raw beauty left a strong impression on Laura. Deeply inspired by her Lebanese, French and Vietnamese heritage, she has a passion for covering historical and cultural ground in her writing. Laura holds honours degrees in Engineering and Psychology. Her non-writing career has seen her in the role of web developer, analyst programmer, business analyst and Agile manager. She lives in Brittany, France.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
115 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Wendy J. Dunn, author of Dear Heart, How Like You This?, The Light in the Labyrinth, Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters and Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things.
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful, rich and utterly imaginative dream of a novel.
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2016
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The Mascherari: A novel of Venice by Laura Rahme

“It bore her face, the face of a ghost that had long vanished and yet its presence seemed so near, so near I had only to reach out, to reach out and grasp it”.

To write a novel is to dream a story and write it down on the page. That’s why the power of a really good story is one of true magic. Good stories engage the reader utterly in the writer’s dream so the dream becomes theirs, too.

Lyrically written, The Mascherari is a wonderful, rich and utterly imaginative dream of a novel. Brutal murder, revenge, pagan witchcraft, conspiracy, corruption, betrayal, sacrifice, all form part of this gothic, epistolary detective novel that takes place in Venice, in the year 1422. Use of letters not only lead the reader through the story but also give voice to strong, well drawn characters. Reading The Mascherari, a long, very long, memory echoed of my first introduction to Dracula, a work that opened wide the door to my lifelong fascination with the supernatural as a teenager. Like Dracula, The Mascherari also soaked into my psyche and left me with disturbing dreams.

The beautiful city of Venice is an immensely important character in this work, too. The Grand canal, the traffic of gondolas, dark alleyways, the glitter of gold and the sheen of silk, seediness alongside luxury, all the colour of Carnevale di Venezia, in Rahme’s capable hands, we are there, in Venice of so long ago.

The Mascherari is also an extremely original love story – a love story that haunts Antonio da Parma, the main character of this work and a man determined to find truth, no matter the cost. His love story also haunts the reader. It is a story of loss; a story of finding; a story of confronting and then claiming your true self.

Magic drives the core of this work; it throbs and sings and creates a sense of wonderment, until it bursts apart like an exploding star, bringing all the elements of the story together to reach an ending that intermixes both grief and joy.

The Mascherari offers a tale that feels like a labyrinth in its execution. But the author never lets the reader feel lost, rather intrigued, tantalised, and determined to follow Antonio in his quest of discovery. We hold onto the threads of the story until we reach its heart – and the dream has ended. Or has it? The ending suggests we will one day be invited to revisit Antonio da Parma for more adventures. I hope so.
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Michael Schmicker
4.0 out of 5 stars Masked Murder
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2014
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Venice didn’t invent the mask, but no society in history ever wore them more frequently.

In most societies, they’re merely worn for an evening masquerade, or a Mardi gras parade. In Venice, from the 1200s clear up until Napoleon conquered the Italian Republic in 1797, citizens of every class routinely spent three months (or more) in disguise, donning their Carnival masks the day after Christmas and sporting them until Shrove Tuesday and the start of Lent in early March – an understandable invitation to trouble. An anonymous populace could get involved in a lot of mischief in three months, from illicit sex and spying to assassination and murder.

What more could a writer wish for?

In her new, supernatural thriller “The Mascherari,” author Laura Rahme turns her imagination loose, inventing a delicious, dark tale of witchcraft, byzantine political intrigue, and bacchanalian mayhem played out between the feasts of Natale (Dec. 25) and Epiphany (Jan. 6).

It’s the winter solstice, 1422. Tuscan widower and retired crime investigator Antonio da Parma has just returned to Venice following the death of his wife. He’s been re-hired as an inquisitor by Almoro Donato and the secretive, Consiglio dei Dieci, a group of ten powerful men which oversees the Republic’s internal security, coinage and morality. Heading for the Ducal Palace, he comes across a wealthy masked merchant, Giacomo Contarini, and his aristocratic friends, roughing up an elderly Milanese mascheraro (mask maker) fallen behind on his loan. When da Parma tries to intervene, he’s dragged into an alley and beaten up himself. Two days later, Donato informs him the Signori di Notte (secret police) have discovered the cadavers of Contarini, three of his partners, and his daughter. Contarini appears to be an easily explainable murder; the other four deaths are more troubling, coincidentally odd, even bizarre. Donato hands da Parma the police file – quietly investigate, and report back to the nervous Council. Da Parma quickly discovers that Contarini on the morning he was murdered received a mysterious delivery of five, unordered but exquisitely-crafted Carnival masks. Who sent the phantasmagorical creations is unclear, but their magical workmanship was too exceptional and tempting to not wear them to a party that night.

Deadly mistake.

Rahme employs letters, diaries, journal entries and sworn testimonies to deliver the account of da Parma’s unsettling investigation and horrific discoveries, as various characters disclose their secrets, and the sinister, witching power of the masks is revealed.
Along the way, we’re educated about the sex life of medieval Venice. The Republic encouraged unmarried men to visit the bordellos in Carampane in order to discourage homosexuality (sodomy and cross-dressing merit capital punishment); puttana (prostitutes) wore yellow shawls, and flaunted their wares on the Ponte delle Tette (Bridge of Tits); some convents were de facto whorehouses, warehousing superfluous daughters discarded by their families – rebellious girls bereft of any religious vocation or interest in a celibate life.

Fifteenth-century Venetian cuisine pops up frequently, and sounds intriguing: leek and goat cheese pie; garlic and bean soup (whew!); pork and quail on skewers; eel pie, squid pie, Sarde in Saor (Rahme’s handy Glossary at the end of the book defines a half-dozen, different Carnival masks, but I had to Google this dish, which turns out to be sweet and sour sardines).
Historical curiosities constantly entertain: Parchment is slowly being replaced by paper – “a Mohammedan invention” denounced by the Church. The government kept prisoners in the “Wells,” a subterranean jail beneath the Doge’s palace, where they applied the euphemistic “Question” (were tortured). Fiore dei Liberi was the era’s reigning master of fencing (swordsmanship features large in the novel). Venetians used cinnamon mouthwash (bet you didn’t know that).

The author’s personal life is as exotic as her fiction. Rahme was born in Dakar, Senegal, of Lebanese, French and Vietnamese heritage; grew up speaking French; holds degrees in Psychology and Engineering (Aerospace Avionics); lives Down Under; idolizes Khalil Gibran; and set her first novel in early Ming China.

If you’re a book buyer looking for an entertaining tale, or a book blogger looking for an entertaining interview, you’ve just found it.
12 people found this helpful
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SRA
5.0 out of 5 stars A strong mystery, suspenseful and atmospheric
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2014
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Evocative, well-paced and very satisfying. I couldn't put it down.

This book will please Carlos Ruiz Zafon fans, or readers who enjoy exploring the shadowy aspects of European cities while unraveling a supernatural mystery. Here, the city is Venice and it's a Venice that surprises at every turn.

Reading this book is like gazing into the bestiary work of Hieronymus Bosch - with its hellish depictions and his preoccupation with sins, temptation and punishment. That's the mentality of this late medieval period and the author very much succeeds at highlighting it.

I'm surprised that there are so few stories about Venice's Council of Ten. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about this secretive organisation.
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Flowersinthewoods
3.0 out of 5 stars Historical fiction or supernatural?
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2015
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End of the great Venice 'La Serenissima' era of masks, carnival and intrigue. Book is interesting but somewhat lacking in attention to historical detail in that most references are to masks and carnival vs. other items such as dress, food, social custom. Characters do not get fully developed so therefore are difficult to following in the twisting mysterious plot line. Pleasant quick read; not sure if this would be historical fiction or supernatural???
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Top reviews from other countries

Roger Vilaret Garcia
4.0 out of 5 stars Good Admosphere and good history
Reviewed in Spain on October 15, 2014
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Good Admosphere and good history.
I really felt like I was in Venice. It's a good history work too.

Recommended
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David Gilbertson
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book.
Reviewed in Australia on June 14, 2015
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I've never been a fan of 'historical novels', but the attention to detail and pace in this story made it a most enjoyable read. The characters had real depth and it took me back to Venice again and again. I only wish I'd discovered the glossary in the back before I finished.
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Prairie Pal
3.0 out of 5 stars Less here than meets the eye
Reviewed in Canada on September 4, 2016
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This is a novel that never seems quite clear about what it is about. Is it a supernatural thriller? How seriously are we to take dreams, portents, tarot readings? Is it a mystery? Are there clues here that we can follow to became engaged in a battle of wits with the author? If so, can we believe in the characters that enact the playing out of the entanglements? Laura Rahme has given us something that is nether fish nor fowl, an unbelievable tale of spirits framed around an insipid mystery. I would term the characters as "two-dimensional" but that would be one dimension too many. And of the ending, it would be hard to be more disappointing or trite.

Ms Rahme sprinkles every page liberally with Venetian terms, as if using "avogadore" instead of "lawyer" or "filze" instead of "file" makes her presentation more credible. In fact, the author knows less about 15th-century Venice than she would like to have us believe. The "French Disease" with which one victim is afflicted did not arrive in Venice until 80 years after the date of this story. Execution by trap-door was not used in medieval Venice; it only appeared in the 1800s. She uses "Plutarch" (46-120 AD) when she wants to say "Petrarch" (1304-1374 AD); "sbirri" doesn't mean quite what she thinks it does; Venetians of the 1400s would not have known what a teenager was. Most crucial for the plot is her misunderstanding of the role of sodomy accusations. I will not be seeking out any other of the author's works.
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KLS
3.0 out of 5 stars All good but end
Reviewed in Australia on November 17, 2016
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Ripping good yarn but ending disappointed
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars A strong plot with some good twists.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 6, 2015
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An interesting insight into some of the political machinations of Venice of the time. A strong plot with some good twists.
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