A Borgia Daughter Dies

Nicola Machiavelli Mystery #1

by Maryann Philip

The saga of the Borgias and the lives of Leonardo da Vinci and the young Machiavelli form the accurate historical background of this murder mystery, set in the opulence of Renaissance Rome and Milan. Machiavelli's illegitimate daughter and his bewitching ex-mistress will solve three murders with help from da Vinci and Lucrezia Borgia--including the murder of Lucrezia's real-life half sister.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Historical Mystery

252 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 13, 2012

About the author

Maryann Philip (a nom de plume) graduated with honors in “Renaissance Studies” (a self-created interdepartmental major) from Stanford University in 1975, having spent part of her junior year at Stanford’s Florence campus, researching her honors thesis using original Italian texts in the Biblioteca Nazionale.

She then went to law school (U. Chicago ’78) and spent the next twenty-five years raising children and practicing law, with occasional time out to sing in small ensembles devoted to Renaissance music.

She now lives in California, and has recently retired from law practice to brush up on her Italian and devote herself to her family and favorite period in history: the Italian Renaissance.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

A real bargain at Amazon.

This book is about the Borgia's family. It's supposed to be a historical mystery book but the historical aspects prevails among the plot. Since I've already read better books on this subject, I just gave 2 stars to this book.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This mystery concerns the death of a nun (actually more than one nun) and the young girl who is caught up in the mystery. I particularly liked the us of linked art work.

I did find the character of Nicola, at times to be inconsistent with her age. And Juana the Mad was not the only children of Isabella and Ferdinard (perhaps at the time the book is set, she was the only child still living).

Still, it was fun.

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

How on Earth do you manage to make a murder mystery involving historical figures as fascinating as the Borgias, da Vinci and Machiavelli boring? This was a disappointment in so many ways. All the characters, the historical ones as the well as the fictional ones (including the implausibly named and behaving Nicola, supposedly Machiavelli's illegitimate daughter who somehow ended up with a man's name and acting like no girl in a convent at the time would ever be permitted to act), remain flat and uninteresting - which is quite a feat, given the complex figures Philip had to work with. The actual plot is drowned in endless amounts of irrelevant historical facts that seem to serve no purpose other than showing off the author's knowledge, and I ended up caring about neither the characters, nor the mystery, nor its solution.

[Marley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nifty "historical" with a lame conclusion. Machiavelli, DaVinci, the Borgias, the Sforzas, make for great characters--especially the Borgias. Lucrezia comes off good which surprised me, but then what the general public knows about her was written by the "winners" so to speak. And then there's Alexander VI, what a doll! I liked the book well enough, but it did have it's faults. I'll probably use it for a springboard to investigate the Borgia Family.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating

A window into the times of The Borgias. A well researched book about real characters including Pope Alexander V1 his son Cesare and daughter Lucrezia, also Leonardo Da Vinci.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

To me, "A Borgia Daughter Dies" is loosely a mystery. The story is a vehicle to identify the families who had a grudge against the Borgia family. Many of the important figures (Lucrezia Borgia, Machiavelli, Caternia Sforzia) of the day make an appearance. The story was not satisfying to me, although I am interested in that historical period.

[Mary Glass · Rating 4 out of 5]

Layers upon layers

This book encompasses many years and many characters but does so deftly. The famous and common folk mix and a sense of the time and place are conveyed very well. The murder mystery plot was good, plenty of suspects, disparate victims and a dogged, determined heroine.

[patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Borgia Daughter Dies was very interesting story. The characters really existed. The times were portrayed well. Maryann Philip told a good tale of the Borgia's in the time of Pope Alexander the sixth.

[Erina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast, easy read. Got it for a bargain on Amazon. Didn't have high expectations but it was entertaining. Interested in the main character and if there's a sequel I would probably purchase it just to follow her more.

[Lovee Giorno · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yawn

To many irrelevant facts thrown in to show the knowledge of the author. Distracting from the story. Not interested in the sequel. She should have tried writing a history, instead of a historical novel.

[Ed Mestre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read that s 2 1/2 stars. This was a bargain book on Amazon Kindle, but some I read actually held up pretty well (some of the others I read simply to see how bad they could really get). Strong opening, hit & miss on the characters, but kind of lost steam towards the end.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly decent historical fiction. The "mystery" part was pretty bad; in fact, most of the fiction part was mediocre. But she had a lot of historical fact which was pretty cool.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting mash up of contemporary historical figures. Well written, and engaging.