Black Bridge: A Mystery of Venice

Sklepowich's fourth novel in his series is one of his best. It captures the mystery and history of Venice in vivid images and has a fascinating storyline that involves the Bocca di Leoni or the lion's mouths of truth at the Ducal Palace. The amateur detective Urbino Macintyre is following in the footsteps of the classic sleuths of the golden Age of the mystery, and his relationship with a Contessa is fascinating in what it says and it does not say, and it is a mystery in itelf. This is not for readers who like the equivalent of fast food when they read a book, but something that stimulates their mind as well as entertains, because Sklepowich is in a fine tradition of writers of elegant prose who have turned their talents to Venice, like Henry James and Marcel Proust and Thomas Mann. Publisher's Weekly gave this addition to Sklepowich's series a starred review. The seventh, The Last Gondola, was recently published.