Author:
Paolo Lanzotti
Publisher:
TEA
Release Date:
10-10-2025
Venice, 1850. The city is once again under Austrian control following the brief existence of the Republic of San Marco, led by Daniele Manin. Teodoro Valier, a former police officer now discredited in the eyes of the authorities for having collaborated with the republicans, makes a living as a street scribe. One day, he is approached by the widow of the man whose death he had investigated the year before. She asks for his help in proving the innocence of a friend accused of murder, someone she is convinced did not commit the crime. Valier agrees to take the case, partly because of, or in spite of, the strong hold the woman seems to have over him. His investigation begins at the Euterpe social club, a place frequented by both the victim and the accused. But the Austrians are also keeping a close eye on the club, suspecting it to be a front for a group of Mazzinian conspirators in possession of a mysterious cargo, possibly weapons. They task Valier with recovering it, offering him a potential reward: reinstatement in the police force.
In a cold, fog-laden Venice, Valier must navigate carefully through hidden truths and growing suspicions, unsure of whom he can trust − or where his loyalties truly lie − except to his own principles and conscience, in the hope that he might finally face the future without his usual sense of uncertainty.