Pistols! Treason! Murder!: The Rise and Fall of a Master Spy

by Jonathan Walker

The year is 1622. Anxiety is high in the city of Venice. Rumors of treason flourish. The noble Antonio Foscarini stands accused and pays the ultimate price. Gerolamo Vano, General of Spies, provides the evidence. But who is really guilty? By the end of the year, Vano is swinging from the gallows in Piazza San Marco, while Foscarini is absolved posthumously. Pistols! Treason! Murder! uncovers the shadowy world of seventeenth-century espionage and the truth behind the most infamous miscarriage of justice in the history of Venice.

Including vividly illustrated comic strips, accounts of the author's bar tour around contemporary Venice, and painstaking detective work, Jonathan Walker’s story of the rise and fall of a master spy is compelling and highly original.

In untangling the career of the master spy Vano, Walker invites the reader into the historian's task of piecing together evidence from incomplete archival sources, making sense of motives, coming to terms with the story, and knowing when the job is done. Aspiring historians will find the methods Walker used to uncover this fascinating story invaluable in their own historical quests.

Genres: History, Italy

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author takes in original approach to writing history. While well researched and documented (and definitely "scholarly"), this book is also not set up conventionally. Its a mix of "straight" history, in-depth analysis of 17th Century documents (mostly from the Venetian Council or Ten and the Inquisitors of State - the latter whose archives are organized in a, shall we say, idiosyncratic fashion), transcripts of conversations between the author and his friends in various Venetian drinking establishments, and illustrations/"comics" based on 16th and 17th Century woodcuts and engravings. While this makes for fascinating reading, it also feels more than a little disorganized - which, if Walker is trying to make his work more accessible to the general public, may have defeated the purpose. 3.5 stars.

[Jane Routley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Punk History. Very interesting. And some interesting ideas about the philosophy of history and of spying. Good research but in the end it dragged. Not sure what the cartoons added and the whole thing got a bit repetitive. Nice try though

[Jeremy Hornik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odd little quasi-academic book, a story retold. I could never really get into the prose style, or figure out what the author was trying to say, but the subject matter (representation and spying) was interesting enough to carry me through.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating experiment in a new approach to history writing; but I'm a maven for structure, and I did not see an arc or clear relationship among the different chapters. I don't need a narrative nor a pat expository frame, but this was too circular for me.