Waking Raphael — Leslie Forbes

From the internationally bestselling author of Fish, Blood and Bone comes a sensuous and evocative new thriller that takes readers on a lavish journey through the maze of Italy past and present, where beauty, violence, and truth have the power to kill....

Charlolotte Penton uncovers the "truth" in old paintings obscured by time, clumsy restorations, and polite revisions. In Urbino, Italy, she's come to the ancestral home of Raphael to restore his classic La Muta, "The Silent Woman." Steeped in scandal, Urbino is suddenly awash in a series of miracles after a living mute attacks Raphael's famous painting. As pilgrims flood the streets and television crews arrive, the Vatican launches an intense investigation. And Charlotte grows dangerously close to a man too familiar with Italy's shocking past -- and to an unspeakable secret that has bound an entire community in a conspiracy of silence...until now.