Windhall and Princes of the Renaissance -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

Two new books came into my house last week. How about you? Anything new?

These two new books are both from Pegasus Books and are vying for my attention:

Windhall by Ava Barry. Described as a "literary thriller," this debut novel finds investigative journalist Max Hailey trying to solve the cold case murder of a Hollywood starlet. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

1940s Hollywood was an era of decadence and director Theodore Langley was its king. Paired with Eleanor Hayes as his lead actress, Theo ruled the Golden Age of Hollywood. That ended when Eleanor's mangled body was discovered in Theo's rose garden and he was charged with her murder. The case was thrown out before it went to trial and Theo fled L.A., leaving his crawling estate, Windhall, to fall into ruin. He hasn't been seen since.

Decades later, investigative journalist Max Hailey, raised by his gran on stories of old Hollywood, is sure that if he could meet Theo, he could prove once and for all that the famed director killed his leading lady. When a copycat murder takes place near Windhall, the long reclusive Theo returns to L.A., and it seems Hailey finally has his chance.

Princes of the Renaissance: The Hidden Power Behind an Artistic Revolution by Mary Hollingsworth. This new nonfiction book tells the history of the patrons of the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance. It is a beautiful book, filled with color pictures or the art described.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was an era of dramatic political, religious, and cultural change in the Italian peninsula, witnessing major innovations in the visual arts, literature, music, and science.
. . . . 

A vivid depiction of the lives and times of the aristocratic elite whose patronage created the art and architecture of the Renaissance, Princes of the Renaissance is a narrative that is as rigorous and definitively researched as it is accessible and entertaining. Perhaps most importantly, Mary Hollingsworth sets the aesthetic achievements of these aristocratic patrons in the context of the volatile, ever-shifting politics of an age of change and innovation.

MAILBOX MONDAY

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