The Queen's Gambit: A Leonardo da Vinci Mystery by Diane A. S. Stuckart
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(Mass Market Paperback - Reprint)
- Pub. Date: January 2009
- 336pp
- Sales Rank: 153,238
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: January 2009
- Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
- Format: Mass Market Paperback, 336pp
- Sales Rank: 153,238
- Series: Leonardo da Vinci Mystery Series, #1
- ISBN-13: 9780425225561
- ISBN: 0425225569
- Edition Description: Reprint
Synopsis
The first book in an exciting new series featuring Leonardo da Vinci and his young apprentice.
Court Engineer Leonardo da Vinci conjures a living chess game for the Duke of Milan using his royal court as chess pieces. But when one 'piece' is murdered, da Vinci's scrupulous eye for detail is needed to find the killer.
Publishers Weekly
Leonardo da Vinci, the epitome of the Renaissance man, turns to solving mysteries in Stuckart's impressive debut. Ludovico Sforza, the duke of Milan, asks Leonardo to organize an elaborate live chess game to settle a dispute between the duke and the French ambassador to Milan. All goes well until the duke's ambassador to France, who was playing a white bishop, is found murdered by the duke's knife. Fearing severe political repercussions and possible threats from within the court, the paranoid duke commands Leonardo, one of the few outsiders he trusts, to investigate. The mystery unfolds with vivid details of 15th-century Milanese royal life, the political intrigues of the time and the elaborate preparations for Leonardo's frescos. Narrated by Dino, an apprentice who serves as a rather excitable Watson to Leonardo's coolly analytical Holmes, the mesmerizing plot moves swiftly to a dramatic conclusion that will leave readers eagerly awaiting the next volume. (Jan.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information More Reviews and RecommendationsBiography
Diane A. S. Stuckart has put her degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma to use as a yoga teacher, biker chick, purchasing agent, farm girl, and martial artist.
Customer Reviews
A reviewerby harstan
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November 11, 2007: At the court of the duke of Milan, the royal painter and inventor is Leonardo Da Vinci. He has his own studio and apartments in the palace and his apprentices reside there including Dino. Leonardo may be a genius in many things but when it comes to Dino he doesn?t have a clue that he is a female. She chose to run away in order to learn from the master himself how to be the best artist she can be at a time when women were nothing more than ornaments. The French ambassador is in Milan for a treaty signing and the two men vie for a painting by Leonardo. They decide the winner of a living chess game will possess the painting. During a break in the game, the Conte de Ferrara walks away and doesn?t return. Dino finds him with a knife in his chest and when Leonardo gets the Duke, he is told that the Conte was the new ambassador to France. The Duke of Milan charges Leonardo with finding the killer a Herculean job because there are hundreds of people staying at the palace and the motives of those that want him dead range from the personal to the political. Dino risks her life to help her teacher. --- Fans of historical fiction and historical mysteries will find THE QUEEN?S GAMBIT to their liking. Leonardo Da Vinci comes alive in this tale as a true renaissance man who hunts down criminals, invents a wrist watch and is a great teacher who shows his apprentices the intricacies of painting. Yet in spite of the deep look into the life of the grandmaster, Dino steal the show as she proves to be an able assistant while trying to hide her gender from those close to her. --- Harriet Klausner
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