‘The Sonnet Lover’ by Carol Goodman
Published by Piatkus. 5th July 2007.
ISBN 9780749938314

Dr Rose Asher is a lecturer in Renaissance poetry at the prestigious Hudson College. When one of her students dies in mysterious circumstances – and amid accusations of plagiarism – Rose finds herself reluctantly agreeing to return to Tuscany to face her former lover and the ghosts of her past. But she isn’t only haunted by her unresolved personal life; the villa where she will be staying, La Civetta, was once the home of a poet who local legend insists was the ‘dark lady’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets. The truth behind this apparently tragic love story has to be uncovered, too.

This book is beautifully written and crafted. Carol Goodman conjures up a darkly sensuous Tuscany full of well-kept secrets and unexplained death. The characters are as vividly drawn as the villa’s overgrown rose gardens and the Italian countryside, and Dr Asher is an intelligent and sympathetic companion. There’s plenty of poetry and literary intrigue but this book isn’t just about an academic quest to solve a 16th Century puzzle; there is a lot at stake – money, a Hollywood film, reputations, life itself – and more than one person has to pay dearly before the truth can even be glimpsed.

The Sonnet Lover is one of the most involving and satisfying books I have read in a very long time. And I will certainly read it again. In a life where reading time is so precious, I can’t give it any higher praise than that.
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Ruth Wade
Other titles are The Lake of Dead Languages, The Drowning Tree, Seduction of Water, The Ghost Orchid.