Venetian Vespers — John Banville

A masterful, enthralling new novel from the Booker Prize winnerEverything was a puzzle, everything a trap set to mystify and hinder me . . . 1899. As the new century approaches, struggling English writer Evelyn Dolman—a hack, by his own description—marries Laura Rensselaer, daughter of an American oil tycoon. Evelyn anticipates that he and Laura will inherit a substantial fortune and lead a comfortable, settled life. But his hopes are dashed when a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, just before the patriarch’s death, leads to her disinheritance.The unhappy newlyweds travel to Venice to celebrate the New Year at the Palazzo Dioscuri, ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo. From their first moments at the palazzo, a series of seemingly otherworldly occurrences begin to accumulate. Evelyn’s already frayed nerves disintegrate further: could it be the mist blanketing the floating city, or is he losing his mind?Venetian Vespers is a haunting, atmospheric noir with a surprise around every cobwebbed corner: a fitting return by one of the most sophisticated stylists of our time.