LAST VOYAGE OF THE VALENTINA BY SANTA MONTEFIORE IN SOUTH AFRICA

An eccentric aristocrat is savagely murdered in his Italian palazzo at the end of WWll.  20 years later, this unsolved crime touches the life of Alba, a hedonistic girl who lives on a houseboat in '60s Chelsea. Between these two events runs a thread of love, decadence and betrayal that takes Alba from the country houses of the shires to the olive groves of the Amalfi coast, rich with the scent of figs, the drama of wartime and lingering decay of tragedy. As the past unfolds, it reveals a secret web of partisans and Nazis, peasants and counts and in the centre of it all, an alluring woman of mystery:  Alba's mother. Alba investigates not only the murder but also the forbidden truth.  What she finds in the past is heartrending but it's the gateway to her own future. Soft cover, good condition.  The cover has slight creasing.  417 pages.