Full disclosure: Vicki Weisfeld is one of our contributors so you could say that there is a conflict of interest here. On the other hand, how mean would it be not to review her book on the site? So read on to find out more and you can decide whether or not I’m unduly biased…
She Knew Too Much is the second novel by our colleague who is also an award-winning short story writer. It’s a suspenseful mystery set in Italy, which wraps in an homage to the classic Hitchcock set up. But you’d guessed that anyway, because of the title, right? What we have is an innocent abroad embroiled in a nightmare thanks to a chance happening. And, it’s a tale with a modern twist or two.
Travel writer Genie Clarke is thinking about her upcoming trip home to Virginia, a chance to catch up with her brother, her only family. She is just savouring the last hours of her stay in the city she loves, Rome. A last look at the views from Pincio Terrace, then she looks for a café on the Piazza del Popolo for a coffee. There are two side by side, and she avoids the one where a small group of men sit in animated discussion. Next door, however, she winds up seated near them, hidden by a bank of trees. Genie can hear their argument getting more heated.
They are clearly plotting something, a secret project, but it’s difficult, even as an Italian speaker, to catch the local dialect and idioms and really know what they are up to. Before what’s being said sinks in, one of the men, an old man, bursts out angrily that Genie may have overheard their conversation and is a threat.
Genie runs as the younger men chase her. She hides in a church but it’s no sanctuary. When one of her pursuers catches her, he beats her brutally and is about to stab her to death when a priest interrupts, saving her life. Had her friend Oliver Harmon not turned up it would be very different.
Genie wakes in hospital, badly battered but alive. Meanwhile when the little mafia cabal realise they have failed to get rid of the witness they aim to strike again at the hospital. When the police arrive to take a statement from Genie they are fairly dismissive of her claims that the men were plotting something. They prefer to see the incident as an ordinary mugging, calling her attackers street thugs. It was all a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, which, of course, is true but not the whole picture.
It’s only when senior officer Leo Angelini of the Polizia de Stato turns up that what she overheard is given credence. He asks her to leave the hospital immediately to find somewhere safe even though she is not healed and is certainly in no condition to fly yet.
Sure enough with Genie at a friend’s place, a woman is murdered in her stead at the hospital, when her attackers return to finish her off. This is not the only death to take place.
Meanwhile Dr Venieri, a medical research scientist, working on treating Alzheimer’s, is contacted by certain people. They have a colleague succumbing to the disease, which is not something that can happen in their business. They are prepared to pay for the untested drugs.
Leo, a cop Genie can’t help but be attracted to, is charged with keeping her safe, figuring out who is behind it and what the plot actually is. A touch of romance flavours this take of survival against the odds. Genie is a strong woman, dealing with fear but clear she is going to come through this whatever happens. Leo is a redoubtable ally and a good detective. She Knew Too Much offers enjoyable, engaging reading in a well-researched setting with a touch of romance to keep things lively, without detracting from the peril and tension of the plot.
Also see our review of An Enigma by the Sea by Fruterro and Lucentini.
Audecyn Books
Print/Kindle
£5.99
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
