The Abduction

The Carnivia Trilogy #2

by Jonathan Holt

A teenage girl is kidnapped in Venice. The race to save her will uncover a conspiracy powerful men will kill to keep hidden.

THE HOSTAGE: The teenage daughter of a US soldier disappeared in Venice last night. Now clues are appearing on anonymous website Carnivia.com – and the police are always one step behind.

THE INVESTIGATORS: Kat Tapo of the Venice Carabinieri and US intelligence analyst Holly Boland are working together to find the girl. The deeper they dig, the darker the case becomes.

THE WEBMASTER: Daniele Barbo, creator of Carnivia, never allows access to his servers. But then secrets are unearthed from Italy's dark wartime past. Secrets that could put them all in danger...

THE ABDUCTION has begun.

Genres: Crime, Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Italy, Mystery Thriller, Ebooks

400 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Abduction is the second book in the Carnivia Series by Jonathan Holt. The first, The Boatman (originally published as The Abomination), was a favourite of the year I read it.
This series is set in Italy, mainly in and around the beautiful city of Venice. It’s is an amazing city that I love and I have been to many times. Just reading about the place names, canals and plazas brings it to life.
This book is a complex story of corruption and kidnapping. A 16 year old American girl, daughter of a US army officer, goes missing from a military base in Vicenza.
At the same time a WW11 skeleton is found during the building of the controversial US base and Italy’s hidden wartime secrets start to be unearthed.
Colonel Aldo Paola and Captain Kat Tapo from the Italian police, work together on the case, with intelligence analyst Lieutenant Holly Boland. Holly is the liaison officer for the missing girl’s family at the US base and her instincts are telling her this is not just a normal kidnapping.
When video clips of the missing girl are streamed live, tensions run high when the team realise the intention of the kidnappers. How far will the kidnappers go to achieve their demands.
Holt has invented a great set of characters that are as complex as the plot. It is however easy to read.
I do not normally enjoy police procedurals but this series seems different.... it’s a mix of police investigation, army intrigue, cyber analysis and believable relationships. In my mind a fab mix especially when set in Italy !

[Ramazan Atlen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Serinin ilki "Yüz Karası"na üç yıldız vermiştim. Balkanlarda geçen sahneler dışında aklımda bir şey kalmamış. Hızla okuyup bitirdiğim, sonrasında unuttuğum bir romandı. Karakterlere çok bağlanamamış, batının savaş suçlarına dair ifşalardan pek de etkilenmemiştim.
Aynı karakterler "Kayıp Geçmiş"te de devam ediyor: Albay Piola, Yüzbaşı Kat, Teğmen Holly, bilgisayar dahisi Daniele. Yazar hikayeyi bu dört kişi üzerinden anlatıyor. Piola ve Kat ilk kitaptaki soruşturma sırasında yasak ilişki yaşamışlar, romanın sonunda tatsız biçimde ayrılmak zorunda kalmışlardı. Bu romanda yeniden birlikte çalışmak zorunda kalıyorlar.
İtalya'da konuşlanan ABD ordusundaki bir subayın kızı kaçırılıyor. Kızı kaçıranlar ABD'nin Guantanamo'da yaptığı işkenceleri yapıp internetten yayınlamaya başlıyorlar. Aynı sıralarda Vatikan'daki şeffaflık yanlısı bir rahibin kendisine gösterilen bir belge karşısında dudakları uçukluyor.
İlk kitap gibi bu da birkaç koldan ilerliyor. Yazar iyi bir kurgucu. Epeyce araştırma yaptığı da belli. Roman kolay ve hızlı okunuyor. Ama ben karakterlerden hiçbiriyle özdeşlik kuramadım, hiçbirini yakından tanıyamadım ve merak etmedim. Kısacası pek çok şey var romanda ama "insan" yok.
Ayrıca romanda Avrupa tarihini yeniden yazacak bir şey varsa bile ben görmedim. Amerika'nın soğuk savaş döneminde komünistlere karşı kiliseyle iş tutması beni hiç şaşırtmadı çünkü. Belki de batıya dair o kadar çok ifşayla karşılaştık ki artık hiçbir şey bizi şaşırtmaya yetmiyor.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Abduction – Stunning Story

The Abduction is the eagerly awaited follow up to The Abomination by the secretive Jonathan Holt the pseudonym for an already successful British author. This is the second in his Carnivia trilogy and keeps up the pace The Abomination started and brings to life some of Italy’s murky post-war past and the aid that the Americans and the Vatican gave the country not to fall in to the communist’s hands. The historical notes that Holt has drawn on a number of real conspiracies from the cold war and has used some dramatic licence in the process.

The Abduction takes that murky past and centres it on Venice and gives us a breathtaking thriller that leaves you hungry for more and glad that you have read this instalment. The Abduction carries on shining a light in to those dark corners of Italian and Papal history and gives us a high voltage, double dealing, absolutely fascinating thriller.

It is carnival time in Venice and a young girl is kidnapped from a club where one of the hottest parties is taking place. The only problem is that the girl Mia is an army brat and her dad is based just outside Venice at the local military base. The kidnappers reveal themselves to be an activist group who want an end to all military bases in Italy and to help their cause they use the CIA torture memos to inflict a living nightmare upon Mia.

With our returning heroes Captain Kat Tapo of the Venice Carabinieri and second Lieutenant Holly Boland of the liaison unit or commonly acknowledged in the USA army as an Intelligence Analyst. The kidnappers are coming across as well organised amateurs but there is something about this kidnap that does not seem to be amateur to Kat and Holly; it is this that they investigate having to use their acquaintance Danielle Barbo hacker extraordinaire and the genius behind Carnivia the virtual world of Venice where anything goes.

We see the pervasive hand of the CIA and US military always hovering in the background of the Carabinieri investigation and sometimes using the power of the mis-direct to cover their aims. As the investigate continues both Kat and Holly feel they are not being told the full story of why Mia was targeted and it is down to them to investigate this and it could endanger them both.

As the politicians and media press for the closure of Carnivia.com and the Italian anti-terrorist team attempt to shut it down it is through Carnivia and Barbo that Kat and Holly can investigate fully. Whether either of our intrepid investigators are able to save Mia and find the truth may have a very high dividend but both are equally determined to discover the truth of both the past and the present. Even though they know that it is a great risk to themselves.

This is another fantastic part of the Carnivia trilogy and no reader will be disappointed, but it will leave them breathless and gagging for the final part of the trilogy. This is a brilliant blend of the past and the present made in to a thriller and the dial has been turned up to 11. Holt again shows that he is a master of his research, while making no political statement shines a light into parts of Italian history some wish would stay in the past. This is a winner of a book with very engaging characters and you are able to see how things unravel for the kidnappers in a very believable way. Simply brilliant.

[Papatya ŞENOL · Rating 4 out of 5]

bu seriyi çok sevdim. üçüncü kitabı okumak için de sabırsızlanıyorum.
antiamerikan ve feminist yaklaşımlar bu kitapta da mevcut. artan gerilim ve sürükleyicilik çok başarılı. ilk kitapta kiliseye odaklanırken, burada Amerika'nın sınırdışı uygulamaları ve işkence kabul edilmeyen işkenceleri ele alınıyor.
polisiye meraklılarına tavsiyemdir.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite a long read and by the middle does feel stretched. Then the end comes, but there are still a few chapters that have to summon up our enthusiasm all over again before the real end.

A skeleton is uncovered during digging for foundations when an American military base is being extended, in Italy. The nearest police are the Venice cops - but this is no Brunetti book; this has a lot of modern comment, international politics and computer intrusion. We also find a website called Carnivia where people go to send their avatars to have orgies on their behalf, or something. I am not sure how that makes money, given that adverts are not displayed, customers don't appear to pay and customer details are not sold. This wasn't explained. With three sets of servers running the site there must be some whacking electricity bills alone.

A young American woman is kidnapped - she's under 18 and had defied her army dad to get in to an adult club with fake ID. Her abductors put her through a series of horrible events like torture but which they insist are not torture because the CIA says so. They film each part and release it on a website. The police try to find the kidnap victim.

We mostly follow two different women but they had very similar voices so I pretty much treated them as the same character. One of them eats horse and donkey and one is American. Not that you'd know it. This might be a factor of translation. Another character we follow is a man called Piola and then we get the point of view of the abductee, so maybe there is one too many.

Read for cynical comment on American history in Italy, hackers using a remote access tool and the police work of tracking down the abductors.
This is an unbiased review.

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 sterren - Nederlandse paperback

Na het eerste deel " het labyrint van Venetië " in een ruk uitgelezen te hebben , wilde ik deze ook lezen.

Italië vlak na de tweede wereldoorlog met de dreiging dat het communisme in een gekozen regering aan de macht zou komen. En de gevangenen van de VS uit Afganistan, verblijven die alleen in Guantánamo Bay?

Twee intriges samen met de legitimiteit of een second life maatschappij los van alle regels mag bestaan.

De mix van het Italiaanse leven, haar heerlijke keuken, politieke intriges, haar gecompliceerde verhouding tot de VS, maakten het tot een boek, dat ik in een feelgood sfeer iedere keer weer pakte.
En verder tandenbijtend spannend.

[Türkay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Türün meraklılarının keyifle okuyacağı bir polisiye...

[Kitapbocegim · Rating 2 out of 5]

İlk kitap kadar beğenmedim :(

[Kaatje · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an intense thriller. It is so hard to put down and its a mindfuck from beginning to end. Loved it.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can't remember the last time – if ever – I read a thriller so packed with conspiracy, incident and intrigue. This has a historical murder, contemporary murders, vast CIA conspiracies, the abduction of the title (though that's not the only one), secret societies, an orgy, internet manipulation, a planned uprising, rogue soldiers, a military drug racket – I better stop there. I'm out of breath.

The focus of this enjoyable and fascinating story is the abduction from a Venetian orgy of teenager Mia, the daughter of a high-ranking US army officer. It would appear that activists against a new American base in Italy have snatched her. They rather cruelly and ingeniously use the CIA's own directives on the use of waterboarding and other coercive techniques to abuse the young woman before an internet audience. The implication being, the Americans don't like a dose of their own medicine. 'At 9pm she will not be tortured…' the captors chillingly announce on the internet, meaning that at 9pm they will use near-lethal US methods of non-torture on her.

A good chunk of the intrigue is taken up with cyber spying, hacking, how a site called Carnivia is hijacked to show Mia at the hands of her captors, while Facebook is also thrown in there. It occurred to me that anyone reading this book 20 years ago would have it and the issues it touches on about freedom of expression in the digital age almost incomprehensible. Things have changed mightily…

Pitched against the evil-doers are a varied bunch of protagonists – Captain Kat Tapo of the Carabinieri, her colleague and former lover Colonel Aldo Piola, and US intelligence analyst Holly Boland.

This is book 2 of author Jonathan Holt's Carnivia trilogy. Interestingly, he is the director of an ad agency and lover of Italy. The flavour of Italy and its culture is captured well in his book.

Abduction is a tale rich in mystery, all the better for being inspired by the CIA's postwar subterfuges in Italy, when it was determined not to allow the country turn to communism via the ballot box, and joined forces with the Vatican to prevent this happening. At the same time, the Obama administration's lacklustre efforts in stamping out the excesses of 'rendition' gives it a powerful contemporary twist.

My only criticism would be that the narrative has so much going on in it that the characters' feet barely touch the ground, so fast are they flung about by events. But it's a thriller that's gripping and far more stimulating than most. Boring it ain't.

[Vivienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second in this series proved as exiting as The Abomination and was a real page-turner. I would caution that there are a number of scenes of torture that are deeply disturbing, more so by the fact these are sanctioned methods of questioning and classified as 'Not Torture'.

While it does work as a stand-alone, it is better to read The Abomination first to.understand the relationships between the main characters including Kat's troubled relationship with Aldo Piola, who is missing from the official synopsis but is an important part of the Venice Carabinieri investigation into the kidnapping.

The historical basis of the novel are explained by the author in his final notes and while he uses dramatic license in terms of the novel's central conspiracy it is clear that he drew upon real life conspiracies that occurred during WWII and the Cold War as well as practices such as rendition and enhanced interrogation techniques that continue to raise political controversy.

I can hardly wait for the third in the trilogy out next May.

[Reet · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the 2nd book in the carnivia series, the book starts out with Holly calling Kat. If you remember, at the end of the last book, Holly and Kat had had a falling out. But this time Holly needs her help: the daughter of an officer on the U.S. base in Venice, Mia Elston, has disappeared, supposedly kidnapped.
On Carnivia.com, the cyber copy of Venice, where people can hide their identities behind masks, and interact, videos begin to show up showing Mia Talking about torture techniques that the CIA uses that are said by the U.S. government to not be tortuous. Then it shows men in hoods doing those things to Mia, while she screams. The kidnappers say that the torture of Mia will stop when further construction on the U.S. base are halted. Nobody in Venice wants the U.S. there.
" … the new American base being built at the disused Dal Molin airfield, just a few miles from the existing Garrison at Caserma Ederle, was one of the biggest building projects in northern Italy, matched only by the flood barriers in the Venetian lagoon. Both projects were controversial, but in the case of Dal Molin the controversy had quickly turned to something more .
Many local people had already been uneasy about the number of US military installations ringing their city, from underground missile silos to vehicle compounds. Others had been riled by the way the Americans appeared to have been able to bypass the usual planning procedures, their very presence sanctioned by secret agreements dating back to the 2nd World War..."
Because a skeleton had been found at the construction location by a protestor, that dated back to World War II, Lieutenant Aldo Piola had to question the workers from the job site. When he did this, he found that many of the workers had illegal Visas.
This was no surprise, The army bases utilizing foreign workers with visas that are forged, for the construction work to keep costs low.
"... Many of Italy's foreign workers were in the country illegally was hardly a revelation. He'd heard that these days you could get even get false papers from the mafia on easy credit coma with payment deferred until your 1st paypacket - the catch being that only then did the illegal worker discover that he was being charged an exorbitant rate of interest on top of the original amount, carefully worked out so that he'd never quite be able to pay off the debt."
The trouble was that the backhoe worker from where the skeleton was found had fled the country, fearing reprisal from the Mafia and for his presence illegally in the country. So, Piola was unable to question him.
Carabiniere Captain Kat Tapo and Holly Boland, U.S. Army 2nd lieutenant, ask Carnivia genius creator Daniele Barbo to help them find Mia.
This book got an extra star just because this author shows the disgusting hypocrisy of the CIA declaring that water boarding and walling, and others are not tortuous interrogation techniques, all the while describing Mia as going through those very Agonizing tortures. Moreover, Holly herself is later kidnapped, and is given even more extreme torture, although she is rescued before she is destroyed.
I also like how the author makes fun of the Catholic Church, especially the Order of Melchizedek. During his investigation, Piola goes to their headquarters, and inside the building finds pictures and explanations that are laughable:
"there was a picture of the previous Pope being welcomed to Palazzo Lighnier by a group of men in ceremonial robes, and another of a robed man proudly holding an elaborate golden urn. Just visible inside it, through a kind of porthole, was a lump of black matter.
'One of the order's most prized relics is the incorrupt tongue of Saint John the Baptist, presented to the Brethren by Pope Sixtus IV in 1477. The tongue, which spoke the original prophecy of Christ's arrival, is reputed to warn whenever the Catholic Church is in danger of heresy or misjudgment.'
If that was the case, piola thought cynically, it must have been babbling nonstop of late. …"

A lamentable issue I had with this author was his penchant for having his characters eat animals. You could have just had them having dinner and not told us what poor defenseless animals had been killed to fill a human character's mouth, ie, eels, pigeons, baby cows, the guts and organs of sheep etc. Kat dines with a rich old fart who wants to have sex with her on...
"... Live spider crabs during the all too brief season known as la muta 'the change' - during which the tiny crustaceans shed their shells in order to grow a larger one. Like most venetians, she [Kat's grandma] usually served this delicacy stuffed, with the unusual proviso that it was the crab, not the cook, which did the stuffing, the crabs having been placed in a bowl of batter mixture to gorge themselves for a few hours before being tipped into a Pan of hot oil."
And then, when Piola is in Rome during his investigation, he dines with An expert on World War II, on some disgusting Rome cuisine:
"then for the primo, it had to be meat, and specifically offal. Roman cooking had always been based on using odd cuts in interesting ways, Anna told him, a legacy of the days when there had been so many cardinals, nobles and courtiers in the city that all that was left to ordinary people was the quinto quarto, the 5th quarter - that is, the inside. He was intrigued to see on the menu dishes such as milza (stewed spleen), cervello (brain), coratella (fried heart, lung and aesophagus), and even Zinna (cow's udder); all hard to find elsewhere these days but clearly still devoured by Romans with gusto."

Holly Boland still seems to be trusting of that Ian Gilroy old fart character, supposedly eX CIA, who is very much still CIA. She trusts him with all her intelligence, much of it given by Kat, the Caribiniere Capitan. I think Aldo Piolo is getting an idea that he can't be trusted, because otherwise how would he know all that about where Piolo was planning to go, if he put in for a transfer from Venice.? I think Gilroy is putting bugs in his rooms and on his phone.
"She shook her head. 'that's paranoid.' it was true that Gilroy's name had cropped up from time to time. but it would be crazy to try to read too much into it. The truth, as she understood it, was more like a series of Russian dolls, one inside another. Inside Azione Dal Molin was Carver, and drugs, and Elston, and Exodus. Inside the CIA was Bob Garland, and OSS, and the Order of Melchizedek. And inside them both, the very smallest doll, was The Enemy - once called communism and now call terror, but the same all consuming foe nevertheless."

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the first in the series, I decided I should grab the second while I was at the library last week. The story continues with the same characters and the same setting....Venice. Technology continues to play a role in the story.....and the American military base continues to be a problem. In this book an officer's daughter is kidnapped and treated as a prisoner---- using the documented tortures American made....certain parts of the story are confusing. But in the end the story is interesting....and I enjoyed reading another mystery by the author. It helps that I like the characters.
Read if you are looking for a mystery....

(I apologize for the opaque description of the book....I can't remember the characters' names...and I returned the book to the library already. Gah!)

[J.F. Penn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A conspiracy thriller that explores the depths of what humans do under the umbrella of power. A girl is abducted and subjected to what is NOT defined as torture by the US, as the world watches through Carnivia, a website that guarantees anonymity. Kat, Holly and Daniele must work together to find the girl ... And unravel the plot behind it all.
I'm desperate for the next book. Brilliant.

[Kahlan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deuxième tome de la trilogie Carnivia, de Jonathan Holt, Incarcération fait suite à Abomination que j’ai lu en 2014. On y retrouve le carabinier Katarina Tapo et le lieutenant Holly Bolland aux prises avec une nouvelle enquête. Le premier opus révélait déjà de sombres secrets sur l’implication de l’Amérique dans la guerre de Bosnie. Il semble que l’auteur revienne ici à un thème qui lui est cher, l’armée américaine et l'Église étant à nouveau au cœur de l’intrigue.

Ce qui m’avait intriguée quand j’ai commencé Abomination, c’était Carnivia, ce réseau social qui est une extraordinaire reconstitution virtuelle de la ville de Venise et où l’anonymat des utilisateurs est garanti. Et je me souviens que j’avais été un peu déçue qu’il n’occupe pas une place plus importante au sein de l’intrigue. Un reproche que l’on peut également faire à ce second volume, Carnivia n’étant qu’un outil de communication pour les ravisseurs de la jeune Mia. Alors oui, le thème de la protection des utilisateurs, et donc aussi d’éventuels terroristes, est bien soulevé mais il y avait tellement plus à imaginer !

Non, l’auteur s’attache plutôt au passé, en particulier au combat des Etats-Unis contre le communisme d’après-guerre, ainsi que ses implications en Italie, y compris au sein de l’Église. Si l’intrigue semble, de prime abord, assez simpliste - l’enlèvement d’une ado par des terroristes aux motivations politiques - elle s’avère finalement bien plus complexe. Voire même un peu trop, dans le sens où, même une fois la dernière page refermée, tout cela me paraît encore un brin confus. A vouloir trop en faire, Jonathan Holt nous perd un peu en cours de route. La preuve en est ce pseudo épilogue où l’un des personnages est obligé de se faire lui-même expliquer tous les tenants et les aboutissants du complot !

Du côté des personnages en revanche, j’étais ravie de retrouver Kat. C’est une jeune femme qui s’assume pleinement et elle est prête à tout pour être reconnue dans son travail. Holly est un peu plus effacée ici - jusqu’au final où elle reprend toute sa place - mais ses relations avec Daniele Barbo, le fondateur de Carnivia, évoluent, tout comme celles de Kat avec son supérieur Aldo Piola, lui-même étant très présent dans ce deuxième tome. Ils forment un quatuor attachant et intéressant à suivre.

Au final, mon ressenti sur cette suite est assez semblable à celui que j’avais eu sur le premier tome. C’est un roman qui se lit bien mais qui ne me laissera pas un souvenir impérissable. Les personnages sont plaisants à suivre mais l’intrigue est à nouveau un peu trop tarabiscotée pour qu’on y croit pleinement. Une lecture d’été qu’on oubliera dès la rentrée, d’autant plus qu’il semble que le troisième tome n’ait, à ce jour, jamais été traduit.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second time coming to this author. A few years ago I read The Abomination, it was a great book that pulled e into the world he created. For some reason or another, it all slipped from my mind. It was until recently that I remembered this author. So after a quick trip to the book store, I came home with the next book The Abduction.



Once again we come into contact with a few familiar faces. The core trio is still here and for me, it was a happy reunion. For the most part, this is a distinctly female-driven plot. It is always nice to see the change-up in what is usually a very male-driven genre. When it comes to international intrigue and conspiracy these two women hold there own. I like the way they work together each brings a different aspect to life but forging on with the same drive and determination to get the job done. The author has once again drawn on a deep pool of side characters some more important than others. He has also given us a great villain to pit out heroes against. With motive that would seem to have spun out from the real world.



With this book, Holt has gone very deep into the problems of the real world at the time. There were a great many threads here that I have seen on the pages of newspapers over the years. But in an effort to give us something else he has taken on some well-known conspiracy theories. I feel for most people who read this book there will be something that rings a few bells in the back of their minds. I would say that whilst listed as a crime thriller there is a fair amount of political thriller thrown into the mix. It is safe to say this book much like it's predecessor kept me glued to the page. I found myself getting lost in the world that whilst at times it skirts the world of what is possible is such a great joy to read. Once again he does not shy away from some harsh truths we have in our world and for me some of these parts where a very brutal to read. I think all good books no matter the genre should ask questions of the reader. How far are we will to go to make a point and who we hurt in the process is by far the biggest theme in this book. And one that left me wondering throughout.



For me, this book ticked a lot of boxes. It has maybe a little less mystery than the other but I don't feel that was the point. It is driven forward by a great political question. What in all good conscious are we prepared to let our governments do to keep us safe. Is there, in fact, a point when we as the public have to say enough is enough.

[Agnieszka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mia, the teenage daughter of an American military officer, is kidnapped at an elite swingers party in Venice.
But when the kidnappers reveal themselves to be an activist group, it becomes clear that they're not after a ransom and so Mia is soon subjected to torture to make their point.
That, coupled with a decades old skeleton found on the military construction site, gives the carabinieri and the military a tough case to solve.

The Abduction is a second book in the Carnivia Series, although I mistakingly thought was the first one... oops! Anyway, it reads fine as a stand-alone novel, so no need to dither on account of this.
I reached for this book, curious how different it would be from the books the author writes under JP Delaney, and I would say that you can definitely see the difference.
This book is packed with conspiracy, intrigue, church involvement, CIA, but it all felt a little overwhelming, and I struggled to keep track of things. The kidnapping thread was gripping, and I kept turning the pages to find out what was going to happen to Mia, but the war/church thread had me skim-reading parts of the book.
I give it 3 stars because it was an entertaining read, but I conclude that it perhaps wasn't entirely to my liking. I will be sticking to JP Delaney books.

[Tessa {bleeds glitter} · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Tbh I don't remember what exactly intrigued me when I bought this, but since then my reading taste has definitely and completely moved away from this kind of story.
There is sexism and sexual assault and cheating and it all felt so... Pointless. Just a way to make the story more edgy and horrifying than it should already be considering we watch a minor get waterboarded to death and then revived and then also read about another woman being waterboarded to death and brought back to life by, if I remember correctly, a car battery attached to her breasts. Like that was all bad enough, thank you very much.
That's also to say that I didn't expect quite that much violence in this and while I definitely appreciate the commentary on torture (or what is considered "not torture", especially by the US government) it was all just a bit overwhelming.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book in the series. When a US Army officer’s daughter is kidnapped, both Kat Tapo and Lt. Holly Boland become involved in the case. It is clear that this is more than an ordinary ransom case when the girl shows up in a video broadcast on Carnivia showing the girl being tortured by techniques right out of the CIA playbook. As they work on the case and ask for Daniele’s help in tracking down the kidnappers, a body that had been discovered near the base harkens back to the war and underlying motives. The case is tough for Daniele as he still has trauma from his own kidnapping as a child. The girl, Mia, is tough and uses her brains to help her survive the torture. As the clues begin to unfold, it is a race against time to save her and also sort out the true motive and perpetrators.

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received this book as a birthday present. Great gift! This is the second book of a trilogy and I will need to purchase the first as soon as possible. Jonathan Holt is a great new writer.

The book focuses on the kidnapping of a young American girl and takes place in Venice, Italy. It features Carnivia, a on-line virtual world that duplicates the city, and both bad guys and good use the site. This is also a very political book as it deals with current issues of torture and rendition by the United States and historical issues of how the CIA was involved in keeping Italy from communism after World War II.

A very intelligent book, but also sexy, beautiful, dangerous, and full of excitement! Can't recommend this one enough!

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alles wat ik geweldig vond aan deel één vond ik ook terug in dit tweede deel! Complottheorie, geheime vennootschappen en geheime diensten, actualiteit en geschiedenis en hoe alles nog zo verweven is!
Vlot geschreven, spannend, korte hoofdstukken met afwisselende personages. Love it.

En wat blijkt nu… ik vind deel 3 niet in het Nederlands 😨 geen idee of ik de engelse versie zou snappen met al die militaire en IT verwijzingen…

[Liz C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read

A good, fast paced read. I knew very little about American involvement in post war Italy but this story is good in explaining how it developed and it's effect on Italy today built around Mia's kidnap. I like the differences between the two female characters and recommend it to anyone.

[Aysegul Ozkan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carnivia Uclemesi'nin ikinci kitabi. Ikinci Dunya Savasi zamanindan kalan cinayet kurbani bir iskelet, kacirilan bir Amerikan Ordusu Subayi'nin lise ogrencisi kizi ile birinci kitabin kahramanlari yepyeni bir maceraya basliyorlar. Hizli tempolu, tarihi ve guncel bilgilerle dolu keyifli bir kitap. Avrupa ve ozellikle Italya yakin tarihi ilginizi cekiyorsa daha da seveceksiniz.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book did a great job building off the first. The characters more developed. Their interrelationships more interesting.

Great police procedural.

but the super villain conspiracies? Kind of spoiled the ending for me. About 3/4 of the way through I was thinking five stars. The ending knocked it down to four.

I am looking forward to the third book, though.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

When human remains are discovered in a tipper at a proposed construction site of a new American military base🏗 in Vicenza, Colonel Aldo Piola of the Venice Carabinieri is called in to investigate.


Meanwhile, Katerina Tapo, Captain of the Carabinieri has been asked to look into a missing persons case— Mia the teenage daughter of Major Elston and his wife, has been missing for two nights when she didn’t come back from a snowboarding weekend with her class. Apparently, she never signed up for the trip.


As the police follow clues that lead to Mia’s whereabouts, they find the human remains may be connected to Mia’s abduction.

[Veerle Roets · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spannend van begin tot einde. Interessant is de historische vervlechting en de grote invloed van de USA in Italië. Blijkbaar tot op heden. Tot mijn grote ontsteltenis is het derde deel van de triologie op heden niet vertaald.

[Hani Maldini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got my hands on this book without knowing it’s actually a second in nor derived from a trilogy. You can definitely get away reading this without having enjoyed the first as the story actually veers off into entirely a new plot

[Katie Fuhrman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t realize this was a part of a 3 part series and started with number 2. It was good and a strong plot line (loved the comparison to CIA actions) but found it difficult to get into- but this could be down to missing the first one!

[Elisa Schiorlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

mi è piaciuto molto

[Nyssy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not very good at all. Seemed chapters would go on before anything changed. ⏰ took too long, this book could have said the same thing in 40 chapters less. 📖