Join us on Thursday, June 20, at 6:30 pm, with the author Alyssa Palombo to discuss her book The Assassin of Venice.

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About the Book

A Renaissance courtesan must choose between love and duty in this high-stakes 16th-century mystery, perfect for Madeline Hunter and Rhys Bowen fans.

Valentina Riccardi is many things: beautiful, cultured, deadly. As one of Venice’s famous courtesans, she’s perfectly positioned to seduce powerful men, get them alone, and assassinate them. Spies. Traitors. Who they are doesn’t matter—only that they made an enemy of the Council of Ten, the shadowy and seemingly omniscient power from which Valentina takes her orders without question.

Venice is her home, and after losing everything once before to an invading army, she won’t do anything to protect her city, for there is nothing she loves more.

Almost nothing.

She vowed never to fall in love again, but Valentina couldn’t help but give her heart to Bastiano Bragadin, a fellow assassin. But when Bastiano asks the wrong questions, Valentina receives a new assignment: kill him.

Yet the more Valentina learns about the Council of Ten, the more she wonders if they are truly acting in the interest of the Venetian state or using her for their own dark ambitions. If Valentina is to save Bastiano, she must untangle their conspiracy—with the help of her fellow courtesans—before it’s too late.

The Assassin of Venice is a captivating, sensual, high-stakes read that brings 16th-century Venice to life and draws on the fascinating real history of Venetian cortigiane oneste—“honest courtesans”—and Renaissance Venice’s sprawling intelligence service.

About the Author

[from author's website] 

My name is Alyssa Palombo, and I am a writer living and working in Buffalo, NY. I attended Canisius College in Buffalo, where I majored in English and creative writing with a minor in music. I’m a classically trained mezzo-soprano who also dabbles in playing piano. When not writing, I can usually be found reading, hanging out, and laughing way too hard at nonsensical inside jokes with friends, traveling (or dreaming of my next travel destination), at a concert, or planning for next Halloween. I’m a metalhead and a self-proclaimed French fry connoisseur. I also own way too many hoodies, pairs of sunglasses, and pajamas, but never enough books.

I am the author of four historical novels, The Violinist of Venice, The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence, The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel and The Borgia Confessions, all from St. Martin’s Griffin and published (or forthcoming) in multiple languages. My first contemporary novel, Heavy Metal Symphony, published as A.K. Palombo, will be out on August 15th, 2023. I am represented by Sam Farkas of Jill Grinberg Literary Management.