Pentimento Mori by Valeria Corciolani

Book Blurb
Renowned art historian Dr. Edna Silvera is not your typical detective. In fact, she’s not a detective at all.
But when she stumbles across an apparently impossible medieval painting in the suddenly-deceased Nando Folli’s junk shop, her curiosity lands her in trouble with the police and on the trail of a shadowy world no one wants to admit exists.

My Review
Pentimento Mori is the first book in Italian author, Valeria Corciolani’s Edna Silvera series. Valeria Corciolani is a bestselling and award winning author in Italy with some of her books being made into films. Pentimento Mori is the first of her books to be published in English by Kazabo Publishing, and I was kindly sent this book in return for my review.

I love nothing more than losing myself in a good art mystery, fantasising about being that person who discovers a lost master, a painting forgotton about, like central character Dr Edna Silvera does in Pentimento Mori. As a character, Edna is quirky, fun as well as sarcastic and direct. She is a woman in her fifties who takes no prisoners, and is at odds with her mother and her boss at Genoa University, Provost Schiafino, who she treats with disdain. She is a renowned lecturer in Art History but wants to give this up to return to her research on Hieronymus Bosch, and be with her chickens back at her rural home. What does motivate however is finding a panel in a junk shop, realising that there is something not right about it and wanting to take a closer look, the only problem, in true Edna style, is that the owner of the shop has been murdered. This is how Edna finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation, where Public Prosecutor Jacopo Bassi sees her as a suspect and is more than a match for Edna’s wit, intelligence and sarcasm.

In the past I have found that in some translated books some of the atmosphere and flow from the origional text is lost, but this was not an issue here. Valeria Corciolani obviously has a passion for art history and through Edna is able to demostate that in a reader friendly way. I found the details and explanantions of colour, religion, and symbology really added to the enjoyment of the book, bringing a new layer of understanding to Edna’s passion and the story. I have to say that as the tension built I was as excited as Edna to learn what this painting was actually hiding. Valeria Corciolan’s writing keeps the reader engaged, building tension and juxtaposing this with plenty of wit and humor that kept me smiling and immersed in the book.

Pentimento Mori is a thrilling and captivating read that I absolutely adored. Valeria Corciolani writing is descriptive, witty and intelligent making this book such a joy to read. The characters are colourful and full-bodied like an Italian Merlot especially Edna whom I loved and related to in many ways; who wouldn’t want to just sit and watch their Chickens dance to 70’s music. Crime, art, thrills and lots of fun combine to make this such a deliciously delectable read. I hope they translate the rest of this series as I would love to see what Dr Edna Silvera gets caught up in next.