VENETIAN VESPERS

"Bridgerton" heartthrob Luke Thompson performs this novel with restraint, ensuring that the self-deluded first-person narrator is fully believable. The setting, Venice in 1899, has a gloss of wrongdoing. The protagonist, an unsuccessful English writer named Evelyn Dohlman, is a morally ambiguous soul. He speaks no Italian, and his recent bride, an American heiress, has cooled to him. He's perfectly set up to be had. Two rascals, a twin brother and sister, are quite colorful and adept. Their perfidy fortifies Banville's outstanding concoction. Soon Dohlman's life unravels like a plot from a Henry James novel set in the crumbling City of Canals. Thompson makes this historical fiction an addictive listen. [Published: JANUARY 2026]