The Italian Letters: A Novel

The Justine Trilogy #2

by Linda Lambert

The Italian Letters lies in the sensuous curvature of ancient, 20th and 21st century Italy. The sequel to The Cairo Codex follows the adventures of anthropologist Justine Jenner after she is expelled from Egypt in the wake of discovering the diary of the Virgin Mary. Exiled into Tuscany, Justine finds herself embroiled in three interwoven stories of discovery: the long-lost letters of D. H. Lawrence to her great grandmother, Isabella; an ancient tomb revealed the origin and migration of an ancient people pre-dating Rome; and the genealogy of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. While shaken by the frank revelations in Lawrence's letters and the intimate relationship between the primeval Etruscan's and Jesus' mother, Justine must confront her own sexuality and yearning for personal freedom. The second in a trilogy, The Italian Letters is riveted with literary, religious, and archeological history and international politics, each narrative magnifying and altering the meaning of the others.

352 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2011

About the author

Linda Lambert earned her Ed.D. at the University of San Francisco and is Professor Emeritus from California State University, East Bay, and a full time author. Her new novel, The Italian Letters--the sequel to award-winning, The Cairo Codex--will be released October, 2014. Linda’s career has included the following roles: social worker, teacher, principal, district and county directors of professor development, as well as university professor, state department envoy to Egypt, and international consultant. Her international consultancies in leadership have taken her to Egypt, Lebanon, England, Thailand, Mexico, Canada, and Malaysia. Linda is the author of dozens of articles and lead author of The Constructivist Leader (1995, 2002), Who Will Save Our Schools (1997), and Women’s Ways of Leading (2009); she is the author of Building Leadership Capacity in Schools (1998) and Leadership Capacity for Lasting School Improvement (2003). Linda lives with her husband, Morgan, a retired school superintendent, in Santa Rosa, California, and writes historical novels.

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learned a great deal about Etruscan culture, Italians and much much
More.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This continuation of the Justine Jenner trilogy is full to brimming with Italian food and wine, vegetation, traffic, monuments, museums and descriptions of Rome, Fiesole, Florence and Ferrara. Justine has returned to her mother's house in Fiesole to lick her wounds and figure out what is next after being kicked out of Egypt for her temerity in discovering and publicizing the diary of Mary of Nazareth. While she writes an article about her find for Archaeology magazine and helps her archaeologist father in a desultory manner with his new dig in an Etruscan necropolis, Justine also mulls her role in the events in Egypt. As friends gather for dinner and discussion, she begins to see that the connections between Mary and her father's work are not incidental and that a pattern is emerging. At the same time, she discovers packets of letters in the attic of her mother's house that were written to her great grandmother by D.H. Lawrence. These in turn reveal a connection between the women of her family and the august author she never imagined and turn her eyes toward Taos, New Mexico, where Lawrence stayed in the 1920s at a ranch he was still longing to revisit when he died...

I enjoyed reading all of these intimate details about Italy, especially the peppering of real places, and even restaurants, throughout the text. The material on the Etruscans was fascinating. But since this novel is the middle of the tale, there is no real conclusion, or even a precise stop.

[R J Mckay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from Goodreads in exchange for a review.

Author Linda Lambert brought Italy alive in the second book of The Justine Trilogy. She delighted the senses with her beautiful narrative and captured the mind as the events in ‘The Italian Letters’ unfold.

Anthropologist Dr. Justine Jenner, recently expelled from Egypt, continues to pursue the truth behind the Cairo Codex, a diary possibly written by the Virgin Mary. She has taken a job working with her Father on a dig in Italy. The hope of this dig is to discover the origins of the ancient Etruscan people. Justine also discovers long hidden love letters penned by D. H. Lawrence to her great-grandmother. Lawrence had his own opinion on the beliefs for the Etruscan culture. Now it is up to Justine to take these three events and weave them into a whole tapestry. Along the way, she is faced with the death of someone she holds dear, the betrayal of a friend and colleague, and the political machinations of the governments of Egypt, Italy and the Catholic Church. She also must deal with her own personal search for freedom.

[Shelly Donaghey · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE ITALIAN LETTERS follows closely behind Linda Lambert’s THE CAIRO CODEX with many of the same characters while the central figure in both continues her quest for the truth.
The bad news is I didn’t read the first part of this trilogy, and while this story stands alone, it appears to get a lot of support from the first outing.
Here Dr. Justine Jenner is deep in Italy, deep in her broken family, and deep in “love” trouble with a young man working on a dig with her father. There is intrigue and tension here, as well as sabotage to the dig site leaving several very wounded people and one dead. The question is why has this happened and what are the plotters trying to stop?
Then there are the Italian Letters of the title, written possibly by D. H. Lawrence to Justine’s great-grandmother. How they tie in to these other elements along with the workings of the governments of Egypt, Italy, and the over-arching hand of the Catholic Church, well, it’s worth reading to find out.
A fun read while at times a bit confusing, this was an over-all enjoyable Goodreads win.

[Beverly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book for free in a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway. Unfortunately, I had not read the first book in the series and that crippled my enjoyment of this novel. That is why I give it 2 stars. My opinions might have been different if I had read The Cairo Codex. I had thought from the promotional blob that this would be an additional adventure of an anthropologist, in the same vein as Indiana Jones. That was not the case. The plot and the character development apparently were all in the first book. Once I figured out what the story was, I still didn't care. I couldn't keep the minor characters straight and most of the major characters were dead to me. I don't plan to read the last book.

[Judie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had such high hopes for this book. From the synopsis it had everything I love.

Unfortunately The Italian Letters: A Novel needs some serious editing. Some sentence structure was so bizarre, it took 3 readings to get the meaning. The dialogue is clunky, superficial and doesn't fell real. In the middle of a paragraph, the p.o.v. changed, again causing confusion.

Justine goes to a masked ball where everyone is wearing a mask except for one person. She recognized all her friends and they recognized her. How strange is that?

The characters are nothing but ink on the page - they never became real for me.

What a disappointment.

I received this book compliments of Goodreads for my honest review.

[Catherine Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

was hooked into the Cairo Codex by Linda Lambert because it has everything I am looking for in a book. A great story line, interesting history, and a setting in another land. This book takes us to Italy (ahh) and is just as good as the first. Even some romance thrown in. It follows a 20 something young woman on a quest - to prove a historical theory, to uncover secrets from her families past, and to leave the nest and venture out on her own. Remarkable writing. I am looking forward to the third book in this series.

[Tod Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was excited to see what would happen with Justine after The Cairo Codex and The Italian Letters doesn't disappoint! Following her through the lush Italian landscapes as we meet new characters including her eccentric parents was a real pleasure. Look forward to the final installment in the trilogy.

[Judie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Italian Letters, the second in a trilogy wasn't what I'd hoped for. I hadven't read the first book, so this one didn't make much sense.

Thank you Goodreads for the complimentary copy sent for my honest review.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a mistake that my computer made and I don't know how to fix it. I was never reading this book and had never heard of it. It popped up when I was trying to say that I was reading something else. Now that I've heard of it, however, maybe I'll read it another time.