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1970s, WW2: A woman named Alba with a story that takes her from her boat in London to Italy’s Amalfi coast and a past secret buried in Nazi Germany
Last Voyage of the Valentina
What you need to know before your trail
Alba lives on a houseboat on the Thames, where she enjoys a life of luxury, lovers and a lack of responsibility. But when she finds a hidden portrait of her dead mother Valentina, she sets out to find exactly who she was and why here father never talks of her. A step mother with the sole purpose of stoping her even approaching her father doesn’t exactly help.
So the only thing to do is to head off on a journey of self-discovery to the olive groves of Italy’s Amalfi coast. There she uncovers a mysterious tale of decadence, deception, murder, and betrayal involving partisans and Nazis, peasants and counts.
She may wish she had never opened Pandora’s box.
Locations
ResetTravel Guide
Santa Montefiore is the creator of some of the most sumptuous locations we’ve ever come across in fiction and this one is no exception. You can hear the water lapping up against the Valentina house boat docked at Cheyne Walk in London. The footsteps of Fitz the man who falls for Alba, as he walks the cobbles on this way to his home in Clarendon Mews.
Oh and this contrast is perfect –
“She waited for a sound but only the creaking of the boat and the gentle lapping of the river against the pontoon accompanied the benign roar of the city.”
The thought of having to go on a journey that could potentially open up a pandoras box of secrets and lies is quite a sobering thought so for someone like Alba whose middle name seems to be decadence, this will turn out as quite an eye opener.
Amalfi Coast
Travelling to the Amalfi coast to a small fictional place called Incantalleria whose name alone seems to sing off the page, this idyllic village is not going to be the place where alba finds peace-
Strange little cove, Incantelleria. Incanto means ‘charm’, you know
In the first chapter, someone is murdered by two intruders into his palazzo. and the whole story leads to answers as to who and why. A dark story to a dark history.
Overall, the aroma and fragrance of figs is one which drifts in and out of the novel as does that of the olive groves and the eucalyptus leaves. Such an aromatic book in places which lightens the dark moments.
Booktrailer Review
Susan:
I am huge fan of Santa’s work and she never fails to entertain and to immerse us in times and settings we have never been before. The houseboat Valentina with a name and a legend that we soon discover is a lovely premise for this book. The settings of Italy where the secrets of the past come to light is both enchanting and strangely dark when the surface is scratched. Paradise evidently is not as nice as you think but well, the first chapter where a shooting occurs tells you that.
The story of the Nazi past was nicely done and unfolded gently. With a character as loud and irresponsible as Alba, she grew as a person as she discovered the truth of her mother and her father’s reluctance to speak of her.
Not as atmospheric as her other books but still a very good story and some very memorable characters.
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