The Dark Heart of Florence: A Lady Emily Mystery

It's a well-written and well-crafted mystery but I'm growing tired of the way the H (Colin H.) has been behaving the last few books. I get that the relationship is always evolving but I feel (and only my own opinion here, so who knows if anyone else would feel the same) that the h (Emily H.) give him far too much leeway to treat her how he deems appropriate, whether due to his job or his position as a new father from a previous relationship. I just don't like the road they've been headed down lately and it doesn't add anything to the overall narratives.That said, this was an interesting mystery, and I enjoyed reading the details about the time and Florence the city. More than anything, I enjoyed the past-story, woven between the current mystery. It was far more interesting and engaging than the current story, if that makes sense. Still, a good book overall, aside from my personal impressions. If you've been a fan of this series of books all along, I daresay you'll enjoy this one.

I really enjoyed the latest addition to the Lady Emily series. Set in Florence, Emily joins Colin and his colleague Darius as they investigate mysterious break-ins at the estate of Colin's newly-found stepdaughter, Kat. Although Kat is not in this book (a positive thing, in my opinion!), Emily invites the delightful Cecile du Lac to join her as she pretends to play tourist, but really investigates the mysterious murder of a man at the estate. The setting in Florence is delightful and the murder mystery is tangled in the puzzle of the mysterious graffiti around the house --does it lead to a rumored hidden treasure?While I am not a fan of the alternating storyline style that Ms. Alexander introduced midway through the series, this is one of the exceptions where I enjoyed both the present-day storyline and the parallel story in the past, which follows an intellectually curious Florentine noblewoman in the 15th century whose life was shadowed by a scandal and the scary events of Florence under the power-mad priest Savonarola during her time. I loved that the past storyline connected to the ultimate conclusion to the mystery and tied everything up very neatly.Overall, I very much enjoyed this book and found it to be my favorite since Death in St. Petersburg. Nicely done, Ms. Alexander!

I like reading Tasha Alexander's books

Really enjoyed this series. I’ve loved her writing, smart, fun and great engaging mysteries with such good characters. Also a wonderful element of her books are the historical facts and nuggets of great information. I really hope she continues this series or comes out with another like this! Read them!

I have been happy with the Tasha Alexander mysteries. They have well researched historical data about the locations, and for most of the book, the reader doesn't really guess who the culprit is. This one alternates chapters between the 1903 investigations of Lady Emily and the 15th century circumstances that created the mystery. It is about 300 pages and does not take very long to read.