Book Synopsis:
It begins with a troubling encounter on a flight to Venice. She is a Roman aristocrat and art dealer on the search for undervalued paintings and he a mysterious tour guide. She is invited to cosmopolitan parties by Venetian social and art glitterati. Mr. Silvera, a guide whose erudition and distinction are in sharp contrast with his beat-up suitcase and stain-spotted raincoat, drags his shabby tourists from monument to monument. Their passion will last three days, long enough to be exposed to unscrupulous art dealers and other scammers, passing off worthless paintings as part of a famous collection. Silvera seems to know every language and all secrets. But who is he really? Around them, the canals and lagoons of Venice, a city which becomes a character in the novel in its own right.
My Review:
The Lover Of No Fixed Abode is a quirky, entertaining love story that I really enjoyed.
Firstly I absolutely loved the author’s vivid descriptions of Venice which made me feel like I was actually there experiencing everything alongside the characters. It’s one of the places that is top of my wish list to visit so I loved learning more about the city, the beautiful parts that the tourists might see and the back water places frequented only by the locals that were perhaps a little more run down. It was especially interesting to learn a little more about the underbelly of the art world through the characters and see how art fraud is carried out. It’m even more determined to visit Venice soon.
The characters where very interesting creations that I enjoyed following throughout the book. I liked how the author’s don’t reveal much about the characters at the beginning and instead we learn more about them slowly as the book continues which I though was very interesting. It made the character’s seem much more intriguing and I liked slowly unravelling the mystery surrounding them as the book continues. It was especially interesting to see how they interact in the social occasions they attend together and how others perceive them as a couple.
I thought the book had a great pace to it and there always seemed to be something intriguing happening to keep me reading. There is lots of humour in the story, along with healthy dose of sarcasm at times which made me laugh and made the story very entertaining at times. The conclusion was quite surprising which I always love. This is the first book by these authors and I’d definitely be interested to read more from them in the future.
Huge thanks to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me on the blog tour and to the publishers for my copy of this book.
About The Authors:
Carlo Fruttero (1926-2012) (photo) and Franco Lucentini (1920-2002) are legendary authors in Europe, known aspioneers of the modern crime genre. The Lover of No Fixed Abode, their most successful novel, is one of six works of fiction they wrote together. It was published in 1986 in Italian and never before available in English. In 2025 Bitter Lemon will be publishing Runaway Horses, their murder mystery set in Siena during the Palio, the city’s colourful annual horse-race.
Gregory Dowling grew up in Bristol and read English Literature at Christ Church, Oxford. Gregory lives in Venice. He is a celebrated translator from Italian, a novelist (The Four Horsemen and Ascension, both set in Venice) and a local university professor.
Over The Rainbow Blog 
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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