Portrait of a Lady

October 20, 2008
Fans of Stuckart's impressive debut, The Queen's Gambit
(2008), may wish Leonardo da Vinci, the ultimate Renaissance man, was on stage more often in this sequel. As readers of the previous book know, the artist's apprentice, Dino, who serves as narrator, is secretly a woman, Delfina. When Bellanca, a servant to the duke of Milan's ward, Contessa Caterina, falls to her death from a tower, Leonardo's investigation into what proves to be a murder case requires that Delfina pose as a female servant herself. Bellanca's death is soon followed by that of another member of Contessa Caterina's retinue. Already hard-pressed to maintain the deception, Delfina finds her undercover role complicated by a somewhat predictable romantic entanglement with a handsome soldier. Da Vinci emerges at the end to solve the crimes in an action-packed sequence more reminiscent of Magnum than Columbo. As in The Queen's Gambit
, Stuckart convincingly captures the flavor of 15th-century Italy.

Starred review from January 15, 2009
The suspicious deaths of two female servants of Contessa Caterina, the ward of the Duke of Milan, give artist and sleuth Leonardo da Vinci ("The Queen's Gambit") the idea to place his apprentice, Dino, in service to the Contessa's household. Dino, who is really a woman posing as a man so she can learn from the great Master, loses her heart to a soldier and sees da Vinci viciously attacked and almost killed. Milan in 1483 is a hot bed of intrigue, and Stuckart's delightful second series historical plays it for all it's worth. Highly recommended.

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