Written by Fran Kempton
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I am very pleased to be welcoming Fran Kempton to my blog. Today, Fran has kindly provided me with an extract from her novel,The Devil’s Tune,to share with you.
The Devil’s Tune is currently on a blog tour organised by Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources.
The Devil’s Tune is currently on a blog tour organised by Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources.
The blurb:
The Devil’s TuneCarlo Gesualdo, prince, composer and murderer has his wife and her lover killed in Naples in 1590. The wife's maidservant,Laura Scala, witnesses the events and vowes to avenge her mistress.
The princess, Donna Maria d'Avalos, rescued Laura in Sicily after she had been raped at the age of thirteen. Laura devotes her life to her saviour and after the murders she spends years of her life trying to be revenged on the musical prince.
The scene moves from Sicily to Naples and Venice, back to Naples and finally to the New World. Laura believes she is carrying a curse. Everyone she becomes involved with appears to suffers misfortune and death.
A Jewish girl in the Venetian ghetto is kidnapped and sold into the Sultan's harem, Laura's daughter is placed in an orphanage without her knowledge, the artist Caravaggio uses Laura as a model and meets a tragic end.
Three beautiful pearls given to Laura by her mistress play a part in the story. Is Laura really cursed - or is it her connection with the murderous prince who dabbles in the occult?
A gypsy woman is burned at the stake, a Venetian gondolier meets a mysterious fate and Laura becomes a skilled herbalist and poisoner by default before the story ends in the New World. The background to these events is the strange and compelling music of Gesualdo.
Historical Biographical Fiction
Naples 1590- Carlo Gesualdo, prince, and composer, murders his wife and her lover in the Palace of San Severo. The murders cause a sensation throughout the courts of Europe.
The crime is witnessed by the wife’s devoted maidservant, Laura Scala, who vows revenge on Gesualdo. Laura’s own troubled past haunts her as she travels from Sicily to Venice and back to Naples pursuing the strange prince and his cursed household.
In Venice a gondolier rescues her when she falls into a canal. They marry and have a child, but happiness eludes her again.
Returning to Naples she meets the famous artist Caravaggio and together they return to the prince’s castle. He paints a ‘musical’ portrait of the prince while Laura bides her time.
Will she succeed in avenging her mistress? Was Gesualdo’s death planned or just a strange accident? Even when Laura and her daughter travel to the New World Gesualdo’s dark shadow hovers nearby.
Donna Maria, the soon to be murdered wife, meets her lover for the first time, narrated by Laura.
“Chiaia: It all began in that place -twenty aristocrats, rich as sin and with nothing to do except intrigue with each other and make love with someone’s spouse. Trouble was bound to happen.
The kitchens were chaotic, with servants running around carrying messages, newly pressed doublets and gowns, tray of food and wine, and harassing the Viceroy’s servants who tried to give orders to everyone. Someone shoved a plate of food in my hands…
I looked down (from the gallery)…to find my mistress, seeing the pale dress amid a sea of dark materials. She was in profile, and I could see her animated expression as she nodded and smiled at the person seated opposite. I leaned out of my corner a little to get a better view of this figure, despite my terror of the prince catching sight of me. He would have had me whipped.
He was a handsome young man dressed in vivid green and blue silk with a green velvet cloak. His dark hair and beard and the glow of the green and blue made him seem like a peacock displaying his beauty to the world – and to one person in particular.”
| Author Bio – Frances Kempton |
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 Frances Kempton is a reclusive writer fleeing from the clutches of Jane Austen. She has an obsession with Italy. This is the first book in an Italian trilogy. |
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