‘IMPOSSIBLE TO RESIST’ The Irish Times
‘EXCELLENT: MENACE, MURDER AND EROTICISM LURK’ The Times
‘EROTIC AND SOPHISTICATED’ Sunday Times, Holiday Reads To Chill the Blood
‘EVOKES THE ROME OF FELLINI AND SHADES OF PATRICIA HIGHSMITH’ Crime Time, Book of the Month
In the streets of Rome, Vicki Wilson’s lovers keep turning up dead
Vittoria, as she’s known in Italy, is a small-time actress who left behind a dark past in her native Texas and followed her writer husband to Italy.
Guided by her controlling, obsessive brother Johnny, Vittoria soon enters the upper circles of Roman society, mingling with shady cardinals and corrupt senators. Among them is Paolo Orsini, who quickly falls prey to Vittoria’s charms. Too bad he’s married; too bad his wife, an aging film icon, is murdered.
From the ravishing beauty of Rome to the pristine beaches of Malibu, Vittoria finds herself at the heart of a lethal chase, spiralling dangerously out of control…
An irresistible page-turner loved by readers:
‘My, my, my, what a dark and sordid tale of jealousy, desire, and cold-blooded murder… I absolutely loved it’ Goodreads review *****
‘Excellent read, it was tough to put this down… The writing and the tension in the story were phenomenal’ Goodreads review *****
‘I couldn’t put it down… Just incredible’ Goodreads review *****
‘Modern noir as good as it gets’ Goodreads review *****
‘EXCELLENT: MENACE, MURDER AND EROTICISM LURK’ The Times
‘EROTIC AND SOPHISTICATED’ Sunday Times, Holiday Reads To Chill the Blood
‘EVOKES THE ROME OF FELLINI AND SHADES OF PATRICIA HIGHSMITH’ Crime Time, Book of the Month
In the streets of Rome, Vicki Wilson’s lovers keep turning up dead
Vittoria, as she’s known in Italy, is a small-time actress who left behind a dark past in her native Texas and followed her writer husband to Italy.
Guided by her controlling, obsessive brother Johnny, Vittoria soon enters the upper circles of Roman society, mingling with shady cardinals and corrupt senators. Among them is Paolo Orsini, who quickly falls prey to Vittoria’s charms. Too bad he’s married; too bad his wife, an aging film icon, is murdered.
From the ravishing beauty of Rome to the pristine beaches of Malibu, Vittoria finds herself at the heart of a lethal chase, spiralling dangerously out of control…
An irresistible page-turner loved by readers:
‘My, my, my, what a dark and sordid tale of jealousy, desire, and cold-blooded murder… I absolutely loved it’ Goodreads review *****
‘Excellent read, it was tough to put this down… The writing and the tension in the story were phenomenal’ Goodreads review *****
‘I couldn’t put it down… Just incredible’ Goodreads review *****
‘Modern noir as good as it gets’ Goodreads review *****
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Reviews
Sultry, decadent, and erotically charged
Perhaps the most surprising feature of this tour de force is its pervasive links to both Jacobean tragedy and contemporary Mediterranean noir. Who knew?
More than a murder mystery: a story of Italy, obsessions, candid cultural observations, and a sense of place and confused purpose that keeps readers guessing, entertained, and thoroughly immersed
Freaking incredible
A wild ride... exceptional
A sensitive writer and observer
Stansberry is an extraordinarily evocative writer
One of the genre's best writers right now
Stansberry is a hard-hitting, uncompromising writer
Voluptuous and sharply delineated... the backdrop of sultry and crumbling Rome lends the whole story a hot and crackling ambience
A glittering noir triumph... Brilliantly reimagined, fast-moving, aphoristic and recounted in a delirious, shimmering erotic flow, The White Devil is a possessed, fever dream of a book, an unwise third cocktail that proves impossible to resist.
Excellent... Stansberry deserves to be better known... Menace, murder and eroticism lurk.
Intoxicating... Rome is brilliantly captured, as is Italian society, but it is the tragic heroine and her flawed brother that linger in the mind.
a wonderfully indulgent read with some surprising twists
A stunning piece of noir, loosely based on John Webster's classic Renaissance play, which evokes both the Rome of Fellini and shades of Patricia Highsmith... Love triangles, an insidiously seedy atmosphere of corruption unleashed, a femme fatale like no other and a lush background makes for a breathless tale which shifts effortlessly from beauty to crime, in a both lyrical and terse, Hemingway-like narrative... You keep on rooting for the morally dubious heroine even though you know she is not to be trusted until her inevitable fall from grace. A revelation.
One of the classiest pieces of noir you'll read this year... It is atmospheric, deliberately ambiguous, vengeful, by turns sultry and icy in tone with a leading female character you want to trust but simply dare not.
Domenic Stansberry had the inspired idea of transposing The White Devil, John Webster's first great tragedy, to present day Rome, lacing it with aphoristic wit and recounting it in an eerie, shimmering flow.