The Forger and the Thief: A Historical Thriller
Five people in Florence, Italy, November, 1966.
The Guest: Richard Carstone invited to the city to attend the wedding of his former sister-in-law, whom he loved even before she married his brother.
The Wife: Rhonda Devlyn escaping from her abusive husband and hoping the sale of one of his purloined artworks will provide enough money for her to disappear.
The Student: Helena Stolar receiving instructions from art conservation tutors but also searching for a masterpiece stolen from her father during WWII.
The Cleaner: Stefano Mazzi, invisible to security guards and tourists as he cleans and spirits away priceless artworks from the museum where he works.
The Policeman: Antonio Pisani, plagued by headaches, trapped in a dead-end job, on the trail of a hotel sneak thief.
On her way to join them: The River, engorged by relentless rain, powered by the sudden release of water from the burst dam in the Valley of the Inferno, bent, as she admits, on exacting her revenge.
The third thriller by Auckland, New Zealand, author McKenzie is dark and devastating, recalling the Arno River flooding of Florence that killed 101 people and destroyed an estimated 14,000 artworks and up to four million rare books. The pieces of characters’ lives are peeled back, layer by layer, revealing troubled, endangered, driven men and women. Action moves from dingy hotel to exquisite art museum and studio; plot lines take unexpected turns. Running through it all—The River, rising steadily with surges more than ten feet high, pushing 2.5 billion cubic feet of water into the city. A pulsating, breathless journey.
