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From the publisher:
From the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of the Angelology series comes a bewitching gothic novel of suspense that plunges readers into a world of dark family secrets, the mysteries of human genetics, and the burden of family inheritance.
It feels like a fairy tale when Alberta ”Bert” Monte receives a letter addressed to “Countess Alberta Montebianco” at her Hudson Valley, New York, home that claims she’s inherited a noble title, money, and a castle in Italy. While Bert is more than a little skeptical, the mystery of her aristocratic family’s past, and the chance to escape her stressful life for a luxury holiday in Italy, is too good to pass up.
At first, her inheritance seems like a dream come true: a champagne-drenched trip on a private jet to Turin, Italy; lawyers with lists of artwork and jewels bequeathed to Bert; a helicopter ride to an ancestral castle nestled in the Italian Alps below Mont Blanc; a portrait gallery of ancestors Bert never knew existed; and a cellar of expensive vintage wine for Bert to drink.
But her ancestry has a dark side, and Bert soon learns that her family history is particularly complicated. As Bert begins to unravel the Montebianco secrets, she begins to realize her true inheritance lies not in a legacy of ancestral treasures, but in her very genes.
Alberta “Bert” Monte is the daughter of immigrants living in an area of upstate New York. She is found at a moment when she is on the “outs” with her husband, but both are giving some consideration to giving the marriage another try.
Out of the blue Bert receives a letter from an attorney group from the European Italian section that her family is from and addressed to Countess Alberta Montebanco. She is advised that she is the sole heir of her family and is requested to come to Italy in order to go over the bequest and take title to what is a huge estate, complete with a castle, a title, and a lifestyle befitting a member of the aristocracy. Bert takes leave of her husband indicating that she is certainly willing to try and make the marriage work after she checks into what her inheritance brings.
Her trip over to Italy to see her bequest starts off with a flight on a private jet, champagne, and a meeting with lawyers presenting her with a picture of a life filled with the trappings of royalty. She is asked to stay at what is now her castle while going over the assets and the obligations that are now hers. The property is located in a remote area of the Alps and as Bert settles in for a few weeks of luxury a dark side of the bequest appears. She finds that her family is not exactly as she believes and events move into a story that is absolutely mesmerizing and unlike anything the reader expects when beginning to read the book.
A dark side of her familial background appears and brings the reader into a story of ancient roots, unlike nothing that is normal. Trussoni expertly draws her readers into another world. She does so in a manner that guarantees that the book cannot be put down with surprise after surprise keeping the reader glued to the pages. A definite five-star novel and one that will assure that succeeding books by Trussoni will be grabbed up as soon as published.
4/2020 Paul Lane
THE ANCESTOR by Danielle Trussoni. William Morrow (April 7, 2020). ISBN: 978-0062912756. 368p.
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