Short chapters, short sections, shifting times and places… Domenic Stansberry’s The White Devil is a fast, first-person read with deeply flawed characters, an unrelenting sense for noir, beautiful cities and people, and a deep dark tie to a modern time of change. The protagonist is fleeing a danger, as yet unexplained, when the story begins. She is guilty or innocent, beautiful or ugly, powerful or weak… the reader has yet to learn. And in learning, the reader will see Rome’s darkness, man’s inhumanity, sexual temptation and power all rolled into one—or into two, since this protagonist has a brother and their lives are wholly intertwined.

Politics and religion form a backdrop, not unsurprisingly as the story’s set in Rome around a time of papal change. But the foreground is painted in decadence, where power replaces romance, and temptation replaces hope. Emotions true and manufactured, like the highs and lows of society’s underworld, bleed from the page. The story’s very European despite its American protagonist, definitely noir despite its soul-searching, and hauntingly Hemmingway-esque.

Not for the faint-hearted or the pure of spirit, The White Devil is a fast, furious read of trials and temptations, love, lust and loss.

Disclosure: I was given a copy and I freely offer my honest review. ( )