‘The Secret of Villa Alba’ by Louise Douglas

1968, Sicily.  Just months after a terrible earthquake has destroyed the mountain town of Gibellina, Enzo and his wife Irene Borgata are making their way back to the family home, Villa Alba, on roads overlooked by the eerie backdrop of the flattened ghost town.  When their car breaks down, Enzo leaves his young wife to go and get help, but when he returns there is no trace of Irene.  No body, no sign of a struggle, nothing.

2003. TV showman and true crime aficionado Milo Conti is Italy’s darling, uncovering and solving historic crimes for his legion of fans. When he turns his attention to the story of the missing Irene Borgata, accusing her husband of her murder, Enzo’s daughter Maddi asks her childhood friend, retired detective April Cobain, for help to prove her father’s innocence. But the tale April discovers is murky: mafia meetings, infidelity, mistaken identity, grief and unshakable love.  As the world slowly closes in on the claustrophobic Villa Alba, and the house begins to reveal its secrets, will the Borgata family wish they’d never asked April to investigate? And what did happen to Enzo’s missing wife Irene? 

Bestselling author Louise Douglas returns with an irresistibly compelling, intriguing and captivating tale of betrayal, love, jealousy and the secrets buried in every family history.

When I went to Sicily, the bus which transferred us from the airport to the hotel had a stereotypically loquacious guide on board. As we travelled along the autoroute, he pointed out where the craters were where Judge Giovanni Falcone had been blown up by the Corelonesi crime family. As we passed through the city of Palermo, he highlighted the buildings high on the hills: begun; developed; abandoned; unfinished. Part of a Mafia concrete scam.

It is a volcanic island. It is an island of great wealth alongside great poverty. Kindness and historical violence, welcome and malevolence. Stunning beaches, parched inlands. It is beauty and beast. And it definitely has an aura and character all of its own.

I wanted to review Louise Douglas’ latest novel because of that background. The blending of historical reality and fiction and the contrasting time periods begins to take on something of that Jekyll and Hyde status of the setting.

A reluctant investigator, with his own personal connection to the mystery, there is something in Douglas’ writing style which brings to mind the doyen of the Mediterranean crime novel, Patricia Highsmith – and I can pay no higher compliment to her than that.

I finished the novel with a glass of our homemade limoncello. I can highly recommend both.    

Purchase Link – https://mybook.to/secretvillaalbasocial

Author Bio –

Louise Douglas is the bestselling and brilliantly reviewed author and an RNA award winner. The Secrets Between Us was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. She lives in the West Country.

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