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A Florentine Revenge
Celia lives and works in Florence as a tour guide and thinks the forthcoming birthday celebrations for the young wife of wealthy businessman Lucas Marsh, will bring the usual mix of museums, galleries and exclusive shopping. But, in the cold December weather a man's body is found in a disused swimming pool - a man who 15 years earlier was the chief suspect in an enquiry into the death of a six year old English girl. As Celia's working weekend progresses, she finds she is by no means alone in remembering the gruesome details of that terrible murder, and she and her companions seem unwittingly to get embroiled further and further into the mysteries surrounding a 15 year old grievance, and a very current murder.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Christobel Kent
26 books232 followersChristobel Kent was born in London in 1962 and now lives in Cambridge with her husband and four children; in between she lived in Florence. She worked in publishing for several years, most recently as Publicity Director at Andre Deutsch. Her debut novel A Party in San Niccolo, was published in 2003.
Series:
* Sandro Cellini
Series:
* Sandro Cellini
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 2, 2025
I feel as though I visited Florence. Christobel Kent brings life and vigour to the city and its inhabitants. Yes, it is precise and really felt like I was on a walking tour, but that didn't really diminish the book as that was central to the narrative. If anything, it made me keener to research buildings and artworks. No surprise, the Titians are truly beautiful! And are wonderfully described. The Venus of Urbino is one of the greatest paintings ever created, her smile makes The Mona Lisa look drab, and so marvellously scandalous.
I didn't care that the story was predictable as I was so heavily invested in the characters. Kent did a fantastic job with such a varied array of personalities, relationships, emotions and trauma that as the entwined nature of their lives emerged greater depth, love and humanity came to the surface.
What was an issue was, as is so often the case these days, the edit of the book was shoddy. There were too many typos and missed words to count, but worst of all was the misspelling or Anglicising of a character's name at several points through the story.
Small but personal preference, I hate happily ever after epilogues- when does life ever work out that way for everyone?
I didn't care that the story was predictable as I was so heavily invested in the characters. Kent did a fantastic job with such a varied array of personalities, relationships, emotions and trauma that as the entwined nature of their lives emerged greater depth, love and humanity came to the surface.
What was an issue was, as is so often the case these days, the edit of the book was shoddy. There were too many typos and missed words to count, but worst of all was the misspelling or Anglicising of a character's name at several points through the story.
Small but personal preference, I hate happily ever after epilogues- when does life ever work out that way for everyone?
April 25, 2015
Two of my favourite things with this one - a novel set in Italy (even better, Florence), and a bit of a murder mystery.
A 7 year old English girl is murdered at a local Florentine swimming pool and then we jump 15 years ahead. Celia Donnelly is an English tour guide in the city of Florence. Her latest client is a rich Englishman, spending a quick few days in Florence with his younger wife for her birthday. He wants no expense spared - private tours and shopping experiences, and a dinner in an old castle in the presence of a famous Renaissance painting. Meanwhile, Luisa is married to local cop, Sandro, who had worked on the case years before. Luisa works in an exclusive boutique in Florence, and as the novel progresses the paths of Luisa and Celia, and those with them, cross and intersect in ways that they would not have seen coming. connections with the past are revealed and and old mystery is brought back into light.
It doesn't take much to get me in when a novel is set in Italy, especially Florence, and this one didn't disappoint. I loved the descriptions of places and streets, all familiar to me, and although the mystery was obvious to me quite early on here, the unfolding of events had enough interest to keep me turning the pages. I want more Christobel Kent!!
A 7 year old English girl is murdered at a local Florentine swimming pool and then we jump 15 years ahead. Celia Donnelly is an English tour guide in the city of Florence. Her latest client is a rich Englishman, spending a quick few days in Florence with his younger wife for her birthday. He wants no expense spared - private tours and shopping experiences, and a dinner in an old castle in the presence of a famous Renaissance painting. Meanwhile, Luisa is married to local cop, Sandro, who had worked on the case years before. Luisa works in an exclusive boutique in Florence, and as the novel progresses the paths of Luisa and Celia, and those with them, cross and intersect in ways that they would not have seen coming. connections with the past are revealed and and old mystery is brought back into light.
It doesn't take much to get me in when a novel is set in Italy, especially Florence, and this one didn't disappoint. I loved the descriptions of places and streets, all familiar to me, and although the mystery was obvious to me quite early on here, the unfolding of events had enough interest to keep me turning the pages. I want more Christobel Kent!!
March 16, 2018
I can’t read any more from this author. It’s just not for me. Slow to start, full of misery, taking any joy out of Florence.
Then there’s the whole must have children to be complete and the ending with Celia pregnant by Dan. Why would she go back to him? It made no sense. Plus other issues with the story overall. It got better, but not soon enough and I came close to quitting the book. Only stuck with it because I’m sick and didn’t feel like loading up a new book.
Oh, and to top it all off, both times the Italian word “prego” was used, it was spelled “pregho”.
Then there’s the whole must have children to be complete and the ending with Celia pregnant by Dan. Why would she go back to him? It made no sense. Plus other issues with the story overall. It got better, but not soon enough and I came close to quitting the book. Only stuck with it because I’m sick and didn’t feel like loading up a new book.
Oh, and to top it all off, both times the Italian word “prego” was used, it was spelled “pregho”.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 1, 2008
This is a great mystery novel that takes place in Florence. I went to Italy a few years ago so it was fun to read this and remember a lot of the places. It is a good book that tells a lot of different characte's stories.
August 1, 2014
This doesn't get marked as a Sandro Cellini mystery, but it introduces several key characters who appear in those Florentine mysteries. I enjoyed story, setting and the character writing. Especially good if one has at least a nodding acquaintance with the city of Florence.
February 19, 2012
This was a really good read, a story set in Italy and revolving around a 15 year old kidnap and murder. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to reading more by this author.
October 30, 2021
I am happy to read any book set in Florence, my favorite city. This one does not paint a romantic view of the city, but tells a dark story, and it shows us how Sandro Cellini, Kent's main character for several books, ended up as a private detective instead of continuing his career as a police officer. It helps us understand him, his priorities and his sense of justice. The book also reveals important characteristics about his relationship with his wife. It's almost as if you have met these two. I have read several of Kent's books, and have never been disappointed. Her plots are complicated, her characters interesting and unique, and her sentences lush. Her work does not insult the reader's intelligence -- like too many current mystery writers.
July 17, 2024
This contemporary murder mystery set in Florence, Italy, is woven with storylines of four distinct women and the men in their lives. There's Luisa, the wife of Florence policeman and saleswoman at a boutique. Celia, a young, single British expat who arranges private tours and exclusive dinners to affluent tourists. Celia's client Emma, the beautiful young wife to a wealthy Englishman with a secret past. Finally, there is another character whose importance only becomes clear at the denouement.
This book starts slow and meanders, but as things begin to coalesce and the pace accelerates, Kent ultimately provides a satisfying ending.
This book starts slow and meanders, but as things begin to coalesce and the pace accelerates, Kent ultimately provides a satisfying ending.
April 21, 2024
Solid three stars. Midway I had to skim over a lot of the description as I've never been to Italy and a lot of the background information went over my head. Great storyline though, some characters could have had some more depth and I didn't like how she ended back with her ex and not Gabrielle. What was the point of him? The ending for the main character felt rushed. Still enjoyed the suspense and how it all came together. Would recommend to others.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2019
It was OK, the mystery wasn’t very mysterious and I got a bit confused by all the strands of other plots.
January 18, 2020
Another that was a bit ‘meh’ for me. I quite liked reading it and it doesn’t require deep thought or response from the reader.
September 17, 2022
Another good read from Christobel Kent - a taut well plotted story .
Do read this book before starting the Sandro Cellini series as it introduces many of the characters
Do read this book before starting the Sandro Cellini series as it introduces many of the characters
March 19, 2025
Very slow and disjointed. Excessive descriptions and naming places that would have no relevance for people that have never been there. A decent story but was a slog
April 3, 2024
As with so many of the books I’ve reviewed recently, this is another novel in my collection of unknown provenance. I seem to remember getting it for free from somewhere, but where that was, I don’t know. It could have been a box outside someone’s house, passed on by a friend, or one of the myriad other sources that us avid readers end up with random books.
It’s a nicely written mystery about the murder of a young girl in Florence. The story is set fifteen years after the murder, which has remained unsolved for all those years. Unlike many murder mysteries, it doesn’t throw in loads of red-herrings to keep you guessing who did it. It’s much more about the emotional impact of that traumatic event on the city and those who live there. There is a main suspect whose guilt is always assumed but never proven and the story doesn’t really try to investigate it further. That may sound strange, but I think it works because the story is very much about the events fifteen years later. Don’t worry, the truth is revealed, just more as a consequence of the other events than as a direct result of someone reopening the case.
It’s written in the third person narrative that follows, primarily, two characters. Celia is the main protagonist. She’s a professional tour guide and finds herself embroiled in events through the happenstance of who she gets a job guiding for. There’s also Luisa, a shop manager who’s married to one of the police officers who investigated the original murder. The narrator may jump to the perspective of some other characters occasionally but it’s mostly through the above two that we see the story.
This novel feels like a love-letter to Florence. The city is described in great detail and I think the author does a good job of presenting the contrasting characteristics, such as the beautiful architecture and the crowds of tourists. I have given the book to my sister-in-law who’s going to Florence soon so I’m keen to see what she thinks of it.
As I said earlier, the action of the story is set around the events fifteen years after the murder of the young girl and around a different murder that is intimately connected to it.
While most of the connections within the story felt very organic there were a couple of huge coincidences buried in the plot. One was that Celia’s ex-boyfriend, Dan, had been obsessed with the murder and the other was that the shady Ukrainian, Jonas, just happened to bump into the girl who had all the answers in a bar. Those coincidences weren’t glaringly obvious but they were there all the same.
One of the sub-plots of the story relates to Celia’s love life and I didn’t like the way it was resolved. It probably is representative of the decisions people make in real life, but I didn’t like it all the same. I’d like a bit more self-respect from the main protagonist. The knock-on effect is that Celia’s character arc basically flat-lines. There is no sense of her having learned and grown from the events of the novel, she finds herself where she was three months earlier with no apparent progression.
Over-all, it’s an enjoyable story which is, for the most part, very nicely written. Those small gripes mentioned above may have led me to rate it lower than it deserves and I do feel a bit bad about that, but I’ll stick with the score that I thought it deserved at the moment I finished it.
It’s a nicely written mystery about the murder of a young girl in Florence. The story is set fifteen years after the murder, which has remained unsolved for all those years. Unlike many murder mysteries, it doesn’t throw in loads of red-herrings to keep you guessing who did it. It’s much more about the emotional impact of that traumatic event on the city and those who live there. There is a main suspect whose guilt is always assumed but never proven and the story doesn’t really try to investigate it further. That may sound strange, but I think it works because the story is very much about the events fifteen years later. Don’t worry, the truth is revealed, just more as a consequence of the other events than as a direct result of someone reopening the case.
It’s written in the third person narrative that follows, primarily, two characters. Celia is the main protagonist. She’s a professional tour guide and finds herself embroiled in events through the happenstance of who she gets a job guiding for. There’s also Luisa, a shop manager who’s married to one of the police officers who investigated the original murder. The narrator may jump to the perspective of some other characters occasionally but it’s mostly through the above two that we see the story.
This novel feels like a love-letter to Florence. The city is described in great detail and I think the author does a good job of presenting the contrasting characteristics, such as the beautiful architecture and the crowds of tourists. I have given the book to my sister-in-law who’s going to Florence soon so I’m keen to see what she thinks of it.
As I said earlier, the action of the story is set around the events fifteen years after the murder of the young girl and around a different murder that is intimately connected to it.
While most of the connections within the story felt very organic there were a couple of huge coincidences buried in the plot. One was that Celia’s ex-boyfriend, Dan, had been obsessed with the murder and the other was that the shady Ukrainian, Jonas, just happened to bump into the girl who had all the answers in a bar. Those coincidences weren’t glaringly obvious but they were there all the same.
One of the sub-plots of the story relates to Celia’s love life and I didn’t like the way it was resolved. It probably is representative of the decisions people make in real life, but I didn’t like it all the same. I’d like a bit more self-respect from the main protagonist. The knock-on effect is that Celia’s character arc basically flat-lines. There is no sense of her having learned and grown from the events of the novel, she finds herself where she was three months earlier with no apparent progression.
Over-all, it’s an enjoyable story which is, for the most part, very nicely written. Those small gripes mentioned above may have led me to rate it lower than it deserves and I do feel a bit bad about that, but I’ll stick with the score that I thought it deserved at the moment I finished it.
June 3, 2013
I found "A Florentine Revenge" thoroughly enjoyable, and only regret that it seems to be the earliest book by Kent available in the Maine library system. (She has written three earlier books).
Yes, it has a leisurely pace, and probably could be a bit shorter. I usually am the first to complain about self-indulgently long literary works. However, the type is large so the book is not as long as one would expect, and I found the writing excellent and just enjoyed reading more of it.
I don't know Florence well, but readers who do will enjoy the sensory and aesthetic detail about the city. In the handful of mysteries set in Florence by other writers, the setting has just been where things happen. In this book, the setting is vivid enough almost to serve as an additional character in the story.
It's a pleasure to find a mystery with a manageable number of characters, and the reader can keep all of them straight. In addition, most of the principal ones have distinct personalities and relationships, which elevates this work from a thriller/mystery hybrid to border on non-genre fiction.
Readers who look to mysteries for escapism may well be frustrated by this book, since the action develops slowly. For me, this was story-telling to savor, and the plot twists at the end answered every question I had about why things happened as they did.
Yes, it has a leisurely pace, and probably could be a bit shorter. I usually am the first to complain about self-indulgently long literary works. However, the type is large so the book is not as long as one would expect, and I found the writing excellent and just enjoyed reading more of it.
I don't know Florence well, but readers who do will enjoy the sensory and aesthetic detail about the city. In the handful of mysteries set in Florence by other writers, the setting has just been where things happen. In this book, the setting is vivid enough almost to serve as an additional character in the story.
It's a pleasure to find a mystery with a manageable number of characters, and the reader can keep all of them straight. In addition, most of the principal ones have distinct personalities and relationships, which elevates this work from a thriller/mystery hybrid to border on non-genre fiction.
Readers who look to mysteries for escapism may well be frustrated by this book, since the action develops slowly. For me, this was story-telling to savor, and the plot twists at the end answered every question I had about why things happened as they did.
March 22, 2015
My first experience with Kent was her Sandro Cellini mystery series, and I'm in the middle of the fourth one now, but my copy was too chunky for a plane trip, so I picked up this one instead. With no mention of Cellini on the back cover or elsewhere, I was surprised not only to find him, his wife, and some other series continuing characters as pivotal secondary characters in this one, but that the mystery in this book is the entire backstory for why Sandro became a private detective, everything that drives his emotions in the other books, the background of his and Luisa's relationship with Giuli--everything! I wonder how I'd have experienced those books if I had read this one first.
I must say that this story in itself was quite satisfying and I am pleased to have the backstory. I wish I could see the characters of Celia and Beate again in a future Cellini story.
Also, it mentions an essential part of Luisa's and Sandro's past relationship that is totally ignored in the first Cellini mystery, and pops up in the second, where it seemed like an add-on to me.
One minor pet peeve--why did Kent change the name of Luisa's coworker in Frollini's from Gianna (here) to Giusy (Cellini novels)? If anything it makes it sounds more like Giuli and therefore easier to confuse characters. It drives me crazy when authors do that!
I must say that this story in itself was quite satisfying and I am pleased to have the backstory. I wish I could see the characters of Celia and Beate again in a future Cellini story.
Also, it mentions an essential part of Luisa's and Sandro's past relationship that is totally ignored in the first Cellini mystery, and pops up in the second, where it seemed like an add-on to me.
One minor pet peeve--why did Kent change the name of Luisa's coworker in Frollini's from Gianna (here) to Giusy (Cellini novels)? If anything it makes it sounds more like Giuli and therefore easier to confuse characters. It drives me crazy when authors do that!
January 9, 2014
I liked how Florence the city is a clear character in the book. I get the impression that the author loves the city, but then it's hard not to. The book was written in 2005, and I couldn't help but think things like - "Didn't people Google things back then?" (well, yes, of course, but possibly not so much information was available then), because so much of the plot revolves around missing information that would be easy to pull up with a quick Web search today. Email is mentioned at the end of the book, but it seems like it would have been used a lot more. But this is not about real life, of course. The characters have some interesting aspects, but occasionally get tedious. The story starts to get a bit ridiculous, but that's to be expected, I imagine.
January 8, 2014
I liked this. I originally decided to read it as I've always loved Florence though this book doesn't pull any punches and certainly doesn't treat Florence in a romantic way. The central theme is very dark dealing as it does with the murder of a young girl some 15 years before the story begins. Slow paced at times it nevertheless kept me interested no doubt because of the soild character design. Worth a look.
June 15, 2016
This was an interesting book. I loved the setting in Florence. I had just returned from a holiday there days before starting the book and could visualize many of the locations. The book is slow tempo and that can be a bit frustrating but the characters and well drawn and you do have sympathy for them.
I understand Christobel Kent has written other books with Sandro the Police Officer as a detective after leaving the force.
I understand Christobel Kent has written other books with Sandro the Police Officer as a detective after leaving the force.
December 13, 2008
A new mystery author! I liked the fact that this was set in Florence, given that ZQ and I had just visited in May 2008. The atmospherics are great, though the plot seemed to me, a little more intertwined than it really needed to be.
October 31, 2016
Convincing characters, well-sketched by an omniscient narrator; well developed setting that was made all the clearer by being a tourist in Florence while reading it. The plot was predictable and everything was tied up a bit too neatly. A 3.5 really.
April 5, 2010
I love Florence and this book does a wonderful job of evoking the feel of the city. I didn't care for the switching of narrators and the whole plot took forever to unfold.
April 10, 2022
Enjoyable plot but dragged in parts.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews