In Venice, that beautiful old whore, everything is for sale
except the doge's chef. When streetwise Luciano becomes the chef's
apprentice, he discovers that powerful men are plotting to unearth an
ancient book rumored to contain thorny heresies, love potions, alchemy, and
even the secret of immortality. Everyone believes the elusive book holds
the thing they want most.
Luciano wants only Francesca lush as a plum but locked in a
convent. His quest takes him from the life of a street thief in the Rialto
to the opulence of the doge's palace, and eventually sends him fleeing
for his life through the dark calli of renaissance Venice.
Intrigue escalates and schemes thicken like stew while the
