Roman Pentimento
The famed Baroque painter Caravaggio (1571-1610) sits in his underground, bell-shaped cell in Malta, so crazed by thirst that he is forced to lick the limestone walls for moisture. Enclosed in darkness, he hallucinates, relives pivotal moments in his life, ending with a vision of a young noblewoman, Beatrice Cenci (1577-1599). Her life and execution on September 11, 1599 for patricide still powerfully impact him, especially when he uncovers the secret that impelled her to kill her father. Her words in that cell inspire him to paint a portrait that is lost for over four centuries,
The present: Rome's far right mayor is beheaded on a different September 11. Everyone assumes this is an act of terrorism.
But not Marta Greco, a Carabinieri police captain whose tragic past prompts her to suspect the 'Ndrangheta mafia clan for this murder. When an American history professor, Thomas Henry, seems to confirm her suspicions, she begins an investigation that risks many lives. But should she trust Thomas, a man who blithely claims he can see the past, and likes to compare his mind to the diamond bit of an advanced industrial oil drill that bores down through geologic layers, zigzagging its way across time? And why does he insist that the mayor's death links to Beatrice, dead for over 420 years? Still, he does know information kept from the public: the crown of yellow and white flowers placed on the mayor's head...
A pentimento: what lies beneath a painting's surface, a ghostly image shown by x-ray, revealing a correction, a repenting of the artist's original intent. In Roman Pentimento, a dual time narrative replete with dramatic action, romance, even whimsy, all the major characters, past and present, cover up their deepest selves from friends, lovers, and sometimes themselves.
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