Very poor, stilted translation. ( )

When a translated book seems bland, it is hard to know whether to fault the author or the translator. Here, the translator certainly did the author no favours by injecting modern idioms and a certain breeziness into the book. The author can be faulted too, for not colouring the story with enough detail about life in 16th century Venice. I don't mean that the book should have been cluttered with description, but we hear nothing of eating or drinking or music or culture and the story itself – a search for a politically important artefact - might have been set in any era.

What we are left with is a readable but unexciting mystery set in Venice just before the Protestant Reformation. A valuable and politically explosive book is in the city somewhere and a "devil" is murdering people trying to find it.

As I said, I found it bland, but not objectionable. An average effort, so three stars.

I received a review copy of "The Lion and the Rose" by Riccardo Bruni translated by Aaron Maines (Amazon Crossing) through NetGalley.com. ( )