Poison: A Novel of the Renaissance »

SARA POOLE lives in Connecticut, where her discovery of the abundance of deadly flora growing just beyond her doorstep prompted her interest in the poisoner’s art.

In the simmering hot summer of 1492, a monstrous evil is stirring within the Eternal City of Rome. The brutal murder of an alchemist sets off a desperate race to uncover the plot that threatens to extinguish the light of the Renaissance and plunge Europe back into medieval darkness.

Determined to avenge the killing of her father, Francesca Giordano defies all convention to claim for herself the position of poisoner serving Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, head of the most notorious and dangerous family in Italy. She becomes the confidante of Lucrezia Borgia and the lover of Cesare Borgia. At the same time, she is drawn to the young renegade monk who yearns to save her life and her soul.

Navigating a web of treachery and deceit, Francesca pursues her father’s killer from the depths of Rome’s Jewish ghetto to the heights of the Vatican itself. In so doing, she sets the stage for the ultimate confrontation with ancient forces that will seek to use her darkest desires to achieve their own catastrophic ends.

Publishers Weekly

The pseudonymous Poole makes a promising debut with this fast-moving historical thriller. In 15th-century Italy, Francesca Giordano is the daughter of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia's poisoner--the man assigned to protect his Eminence from being poisoned, as well as create poisons and antidotes of his own. When her father is murdered, Francesca uses the knowledge she gained from him to become the new poisoner and avenge his death, but little does she know that the poison he was working on when he died was what led to his murder--and now the Cardinal wants her to continue his research. Francesca's a genuine firecracker of a heroine, and her dilemma--is it worth her soul to exact justice for her father--plays out in a riveting fashion. Vivid, suspenseful, and capped with an ending that begs a sequel, this is a great first step on the way to the historical fiction A-list. (Aug.)