This is one of the best books I've read this year. Set mainly in Tuscany, the story switches back and forth between the War years of 1943-44 and post-war 1955. The aristocratic Rosati family try to stay apart from the war at their home, the Villa Chimera. The arrival of two German officers to see the Etruscan ruins on the property changes everything. Eighteen year old Cristina Rosati begins a romance with the younger officer and the villa soon becomes a place of socializing and then housing for Nazi officers. In 1955, Francesca, the beautiful, widowed daughter-in-law of the Rosatis is brutally murdered and her heart cut out. Police detective Serafina Bettini is investigating the crime which seems to have a link to events of the war. Serafina bears the physical and emotional scars of her time during the war fighting with the Partisans. Soon she learns that she too has a connection to the Rosatis and the Villa. Bohjalian did a masterful job of staging the events of the story with cliffhanger after cliffhanger as the scenes switch time periods and locations. The addition of occasional narration by the killer adds to the suspense. By the end I had changed my mind about the killer's identity and motives three times and was still wrong. I listened to the audiobook version and it is well narrated by Cassandra Campbell with Mark Bramhall as the voice of the killer.
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