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Start giftingThe Villa
A Novel
Length
7 hours 57 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“I love it when I think an author has revealed all the juicy plot twists and I have figured out where the story is headed and solved the mystery, only to be surprised by more tantalizing twists and even more mysteries. Welcome to The Villa! Two lifelong friends, now both successful authors, head to Italy for a summer at a beautiful villa. As it turns out, the villa is famous for having been the scene of the murder of a young rock musician in 1974. Drawn into the story of that fateful summer, Emily begins to research. Clues she finds lead her on a path neither she nor her friend Chess expected for their summer, much as the group in 1974 did not expect the ending to their vacation. Unfolding in alternating chapters, the stories of the 1974 summer and this summer intertwine and twist in marvelously unexpected ways.”
Nancy,
Raven Book Store
Bookseller recommendation
“I loved listening to this book- I liked how the use of different accents highlighted each character's personality, background, and how they interacted with the main characters. Plus, having the podcast episodes and interviews sprinkled throughout was a nice way to break up the narration. I enjoyed how even though there was a lot going on in each timeline (sex, drugs, rock & roll, paranoia, murder, etc.), the root of both stories were about women trying to harness their creativity and passion in spite of the men who were trying to use them, as well as how complicated life-long relationships can be and how the line between growing together and growing a part can be blurred by the biggest and smallest events. The story itself was a solid mystery, even though we knew who died at the Villa from the first few pages- there were a few twists that I guessed, but a few that caught me by surprise as well, and the ending definitely left me a little haunted by how history can be so easily rewritten.”
Maggie,
East City Bookshop
From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.
As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.
Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierceās girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum albumāāand ends in Pierceās brutal murder.
As Emily digs into the villaās complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierceās murder wasnāt just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurredāāand that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.
Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emergeāāand it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.
Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castleāāthe birthplace of FrankensteināāThe Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martinās Press.
Rachel Hawkins is the New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs and Reckless Girls, as well as multiple books for young readers. Her work has been translated in over a dozen countries. She studied gender and sexuality in Victorian literature at Auburn University and currently lives in Alabama.
