The Medici Curse

In The Medici Curse, Daco S. Auffenorde introduces a scrappy and reckless protagonist named Anna de’ Medici Rossi, a Tuscan villa built over caves and secret passages, and a cursed ruby and diamond family heirloom, the Medici Falchion. In a tragedy related to Anna’s childhood night terrors, Anna’s mother, an opera diva named Vittoria de’ Medici, is killed, and the heirloom necklace she was wearing is missing. Anna has grown up thinking she killed her mother. Clearly, Auffenorde, a suspense writer based in Huntsville, has a keen sense of the tastes of the audience for her brand of suspense thriller. Her previous publications include The Forgotten Girl and Cover Your Tracks.

Sixteen years after her mother’s death, the adult Anna returns to Tuscany from the United States “for the first time since I killed my mother.” She arrives to claim her villa and the surrounding property. She also intends to solve the accumulated mysteries of her mother’s death and the missing necklace. She finds her villa meticulously maintained by Edoardo, a long-time family retainer, reunites with solicitous family members, and arouses the suspicions of the locals who suspect her complicity in her mother’s death. She has fiery encounters with a distant cousin, Antonio, a charming, insufferable bad boy; she has placid interludes with his shy brother, Paulo. Anna, an artist, considers the possibility of an apprenticeship with a lecherous local artist who was once her mother’s suitor.

Subterfuge and rampant mendacity abound. Everyone is a suspect; everyone is a potential ally. Everyone lies or deflects. Anna is the skeptical and occasionally unreliable narrator. Her vivid dreams, nightmares, and visions become intertwined with her reality and the story reaches peaks of dread and foreboding. Anna’s ancestral villa is haunted by memories, for certain, and perhaps more. As the story becomes more absurd and the fast-moving plot thickens, Anna’s scoffing “Assurdo!” might reflect the reader’s thoughts. Even so, she must not be so quick to jump to conclusions. Neither must we, as Anna finds macabre vindication around every dark corner.

Anna’s adventures include crushing grapes for “feet wine,” winery tours, and a primer on the history of “Super Tuscans,” an art party with a shocking display of body art, exploring treacherous graves and underground streams, and investigating crypts. Clues that are planted are later dispelled, only to reemerge. “Rogue casks” mysteriously dislodge themselves and bear down on unsuspecting oenophiles. A mourner falls into a grave. In short, Auffenorde plays with the conventions of her literary genre with style and occasional wit.

Auffenorde also provides an array of characters. In books of this type, it is sometimes hard to keep track of characters; Auffenorde admirably delineates the characters and their potential motives. The result is a story full of entertaining depictions, savory duplicity, titillating thrills, and abundant surprises.

Edward Journey, a retired university professor and theatre professional living in Birmingham, regularly shares his essays in the online journal “Professional Southerner” (www.professionalsoutherner.com).