The Sleeping Nymph

July 1, 2020
The creepiest painting ever encountered in fiction or real life sends a beleaguered Italian police officer searching for the killer in a 70-year-old case. Before he gave up painting at the age of 23, Alessio Andrian completed fewer than a dozen pictures. Raffaello Andrian, the artist's great-nephew, has offered the last of them, The Sleeping Nymph, to gallery owner Gianmaria Gortan, whose routine tests of the painting have disclosed something deeply disturbing: the presence of blood. The Sleeping Nymph isn't marred by traces of blood; the whole painting has been executed in blood--and not the artist's own--mixed with the odd bit of cardiac tissue, as if to establish its authenticity. Charged with investigating the presumed murder of the sleeping nymph, Superintendent Teresa Battaglia finds that Alessio Andrian, though he's still alive, hasn't spoken since he completed the picture in 1945. So she follows the nymph's trail to the Slovenian region of Resia, where she's swiftly caught up in tales of the artist's resistance to the occupying Germans as the war wound down. As a present-day murder forces her to ask whether she's really looking for a single killer pushing 90, she has to contend with two other adversaries: Albert Lona, an old enemy who's stepped in to replace her suddenly stricken boss, and her own creeping dementia, which she's struggling to keep secret. It's lucky that she can obtain the services of Smoky, an amazingly talented Human Remains Detection dog, and Blanca Zago, his blind trainer, because she'll need all the help she can get. A sprawling, ambitious thriller for readers with a taste for florid invention and broad strokes of the supernatural.

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Starred review from July 27, 2020
Tuti’s outstanding sequel to 2019’s Flowers over the Inferno plunges Supt. Teresa Battaglia into a cold case reaching back more than seven decades. When experts authenticate a recently resurfaced, long-lost painting dated 1945, The Sleeping Nymph, they find traces of cardiac tissue, suggesting that the then 23-year-old artist, Alessio Andrian, executed it by “dipping his fingers in someone’s heart.” DNA analysis indicates it belongs to a resident of the Resia Valley, an isolated region of Northern Italy. Teresa and her team, including her malcontent assistant, Insp. Massimo Marini, travel to the valley to investigate. They eventually identify the heart’s owner, but the stakes rise with the discovery of a fresh human heart nailed to a signpost. Flashbacks to WWII reveal the dramatic story of Andrian, who apparently went mad soon after painting The Sleeping Nymph and never painted again. An intense plot, alluring secondary characters, and the contentious but endearing relationship between Teresa and Massimo make for engrossing reading. Readers will eagerly await Tuti’s next.

Starred review from August 1, 2020
In this follow-up to Flowers over the Inferno (2019), steel-spined Italian police superintendent Teresa Battaglia faces down a cunning killer, unravels a 70-year-old cold case, and battles an enemy from her past, all while guarding a career-killing secret: she has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia. The Sleeping Nymph, a 1945 painting by renowned artist Alessio Andrian, has recently resurfaced, and valuation testing reveals that it was painted entirely in blood and heart tissue. Battaglia and her partner, Inspector Massimo Marino, must uncover the grisly mystery of the painting's origin. They begin their investigation in the secluded Resian Valley, where Andrian's partisan resistance group camped during the war. There, they learn that the nymph is Aniza, a woman who disappeared in 1945, and her family provides them an introduction to the insular community, where residents preserve an ancient Slavic language and age-old traditions. But their investigation's early progress awakens a killer, and another Resian's heart is taken in retaliation. Then, catastrophically, the killer steals Battaglia's notebook, where she secretly records the memories she hopes to preserve in the face of her progressing illness. Now she must rely only on her legendary intuition to hunt a killer targeting her and Marino. The case leads to possibly psychopathic partisans, goddess cults, and twisted family history?all absolutely absorbing, as is the series-propelling exploration of Battaglia and Marino's relationship.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

September 25, 2020

Tuti's second mystery featuring veteran Italian police superintendent and criminal profiler Teresa Battaglia (following Flowers over the Inferno) delves into the history of a mysterious painting created by a reclusive genius during the last days of World War II. The work, The Sleeping Nymph, features a stunning young woman--painted in blood, with traces of cardiac tissue on the paper. Cracking open this cold case will require both cutting-edge technology and old-fashioned investigative skills. With the help of her partner, investigator Massimo Marini, and a young woman named Blanca and her corpse-sniffing dog, the detectives scour the remote Val Resia in search of the painting's secrets. They discover an insular community where nobody is who they seem, and someone is willing to kill in order to keep their secrets safe. Meanwhile, Teresa is struggling with memory loss and the aches, pains, and indignities of old age, as well as the reappearance of a rival from her past. VERDICT This engrossing mystery blends psychological tension with exceptional detective work and features flawed yet appealing characters whose dogged pursuit of the murderer keeps them from focusing too closely on their personal struggles. All this, combined with Oklap's fluid translation, make this a solid mystery pick for fans of Jussi Adler-Olsen and Elizabeth George.--Nanette Donohue, Champaign P.L., IL

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