Synopses & Reviews
In Potosí, the richest city in the Western Hemisphere, Inez de la Morada, the bewitching, cherished daughter of the rich and powerful Mayor, mysteriously dies at the convent of Santa Isabella de los Santos Milagros, where she had fled in defiance of her father. It looks as though the girl committed suicide, but Mother Abbess Maria Santa Hilda believes her innocent and has her buried at the convent in sacred ground. Fray Ubaldo DaTriesta, local Commissioner of the Inquisition, has been keeping an eye on the Abbess, who is too “Protestant” for his tastes, and this action may be just what he needs to convince the lazy, cowardly Bishop to punish her.
At the same time, Potosí finds its prosperity threatened. The King of Spain has discovered that the coins the city has been circulating throughout the world are not pure silver and is sending his top prosecutor and the Grand Inquisitor to mete out punishment. With the imminent arrival of the Spanish officials, many have reason to prove their loyalty, and keep hidden the crimes and sins theyve committed. With her life at stake, Maria Santa Hilda finds herself in a race against time to prove the true cause of Inezs death, aided by her fellow sisters, a Jesuit priest with a dark secret from his past, and a tomboyish girl whos run to the convent to avoid an unwanted marriage. Together they will discover that Inez was not the girl she seemed, and that greed has no limits.
Annamaria Alfieri writes with astounding detail, showing an appreciation for the complexities and social nuances of this intriguing time in Latin American history when politicians, religious leaders, and an indigenous people all competed for power and survival in the thin mountain air of the Andes.
Review
No city on Earth is closer to heaven. Huddled some 13,000 feet above sea level, amid the salt flats and plateaus of what is now southwestern Bolivia, Potos crouches at the foot of Cerro Rico, a low-slung mountain once famed for its silver deposits. Today, the depleted mountain presides over a town of tin miners and restored chapels, but 400 years ago, it crowned the wealthiest metropolis in the Western Hemisphere. In her vibrant debut thriller, "City of Silver," New York writer Annamaria Alfieri resurrects Potoss 17th-century heyday, when "even their maids wore gold on their chests and pearls embroidered on their sleeves. . . . Wealth was the reason for this citys existence, and its citizens flaunted all they had. . . . Their city had dominated the economic life of the planet for nearly a century." Chief among the hedonists is de facto mayor Francisco Morada, who disdains his louche wife, Ana, but dotes on their wild-child daughter Inez. After the girl absconds to the Convent of Santa Isabella de los Santos Milagros and begs the skeptical abbess to admit her as a novitiate, Morada threatens the order with ruin. Mortality, ever obliging, soon interferes: On Good Friday, with the Morada household still riven by her flight, the nuns discover Inezs pristine corpse on the floor of her cell, flail and rosary coiled beside her, a shattered carafe near her hand. The abbess dismisses the notion of a natural death: "Otherwise-healthy young women do not drop dead of heart failure," she observes. What about suicide? But if Inez "destroyed herself," her body cannot rest in holy ground; interment there would endanger the abbesss standing with the local commissioner of the Inquisition. A perfect murder, then? "Who in this convent would take anothers life?" the nuns wonder. Meanwhile, the king of Spain has dispatched an emissary to investigate impurities in the Potosino currency, a mission that could render Potos "nothing but an imitation Spanish city in the most desolate spot on earth." Densely brocaded with period detail, "City of Silver" reads like an El Doradan "Name of the Rose," all cloistered intrigue and New World decadence; it recalls too Ron Hansens lyric masterpiece, "Mariette in Ecstasy," in which a gorgeous young postulant bewitches her fellow brides of Christ. Yet Alfieri evokes a past, place and people that are altogether sui generis. Her Potos is replete with virgins and voluptuaries, political rivalries and caste tensions; her stately, wrought-iron prose paces galloping action sequences and intimate exchanges alike; her solution, though lifted wholesale from Umberto Eco, is no less ingenious for it. As both history and mystery, "City of Silver" glitters.
Review
The city officials of Potos, the largest silver producer of the New World, stand accused by the King of Spain of watering down the silver coins used all over the world to pay Spanish bills. The King sends his Visitador to prosecute the wealthy nobles responsible, and at the same time the Grand Inquisitor arrives to ferret out heretics and witches. His eyes are firmly fixed on Mother Maria Santa Hilda, the abbess of a convent where herbal medicine is practiced and where the mayors daughter has died of poisoning. Trying to find the murderer places the abbess and all she cares for in mortal danger. VERDICT In this nail-biting debut thriller set in 1650 in a little-known Peruvian city where no one is exempt from the wrath of the king and the cruel hand of the Church, an intriguing era in Latin American history comes alive under Alfieris sure hand. Highly recommended for historical fans. (starred review)
Review
Set in 1650, in the Peruvian city of Potosi, this offers a nice balance of history and mystery. The king of Spain has found out that Potosi, at the time one of the world's richest cities, has been issuing silver coins that are not pure silver. Naturally, this bothers the king, and he sends a grand inquisitor to find out what's going on. Meanwhile, the daughter of one of the city's wealthier residents has died, apparently of suicide. But Mother Maria Santa Hilda is not convinced, and she decides to find out the real cause of death. But can she solve the mystery when powerful enemies want the truth to remain hidden? The novel is fluidly written, with enough verisimilitude in dialogue and narrative description to anchor the story in its period but without feeling over-researched or awkward. The setting (Peru at the time of the Spanish Inquisition) is untouched in the genre, which is sure to attract fans who have wearied of murder in Elizabethan England.
Review
"In her vibrant debut thriller, 'City of Silver,' New York writer Annamaria Alfieri resurrects Potosí's 17th-century heyday....Densely brocaded with period detail, "City of Silver" reads like an El Doradan 'Name of the Rose,' all cloistered intrigue and New World decadence; it recalls too Ron Hansen's lyric masterpiece, 'Mariette in Ecstasy,' in which a gorgeous young postulant bewitches her fellow brides of Christ. Yet Alfieri evokes a past, place and people that are altogether sui generis. Her Potosí is replete with virgins and voluptuaries, political rivalries and caste tensions; her stately, wrought-iron prose paces galloping action sequences and intimate exchanges alike; her solution, though lifted wholesale from Umberto Eco, is no less ingenious for it. As both history and mystery, 'City of Silver' glitters."--The Washington Post
"In this nail-biting debut thriller set in 1650 in a little-known Peruvian city where no one is exempt from the wrath of the king and the cruel hand of the Church, an intriguing era in Latin American history comes alive under Alfieri's sure hand. Highly recommended for historical fans."--Library Journal (Starred Review)
"Alfieri effortlessly recreates 17th century Peru in her impressive debut. The author nicely balances action and deduction in a mystery that works as a political thriller as well as a historical whodunit."--Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Alfieri's debut is a vividly rendered historical soap opera, replete with political intrigue, church scandal, feuding families, illegitimacy, lovers past and present and women fabulously gowned and jeweled."--Kirkus Reviews
"An engrossing, fast-paced mystery packed full of historical fact illuminates the story but never overshadows it; a great read, highly recommended."--Historical Novel Society
Synopsis
The silver-rich, Spanish-ruled city of Potos, Peru, faces brutal upheaval in this intricate mystery debut.
About the Author
A lover of South American history, Annamaria Alfieri lives in New York City. This is her first novel.