The Venetian Contract

VENICE, 1576 – Five years after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto, a ship steals unnoticed into Venice bearing a deadly cargo. A man, more dead than alive, disembarks and staggers into Piazza San Marco. He brings a gift to Venice from Constantinople. Within days the city is infected with bubonic plague – and the Turkish Sultan has his revenge.

But the ship also holds a secret stowaway - Feyra, a young and beautiful harem doctor fleeing a future as the Sultan’s concubine. Only her wits and medical knowledge keep her alive as the plague ravages Venice.

In despair the Doge commissions the architect Andrea Palladio to build the greatest church of his career – an offering to God so magnificent that Venice will be saved. But Palladio’s own life is in danger too, and it will require all skills of medico Annibale Cason, the city’s finest plague doctor, to keep him alive.

But what Annibale had not counted on was meeting Feyra, who is now under Palladio’s protection, a woman who can not only match his medical skills but can also teach him how to care.

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Daughter of Siena

“The rich heritage of Siena is shown in all its facets, with scenes moving from formal staterooms and candle-lit cathedrals to dirty stables and macabre dungeons. The rich apricot silk gown on the cover reveals only part of the tale. Like the Palio itself, The Daughters of Siena is an exciting entertainment steeped in local color and years of cultural traditions.”

- Sarah Johnson, Reading the Past

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