Bøger af Sarah Dunant

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family's Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter's abilities.But their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when Alessandra's parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy, much older man. Meanwhile, Florence is changing, increasingly subject to the growing suppression imposed by the fundamentalist monk Savonarola, who is seizing religious and political control. Alessandra and her native city are caught between the Medici state, with its love of luxury, learning, and dazzling art, and the hellfire preaching and increasing violence of Savonarola's reactionary followers. Played out against this turbulent backdrop, Alessandra's married life is a misery, except for the surprising freedom it allows her to pursue her powerful attraction to the young painter and his art.The Birth of Venus is a tour de force, the first historical novel from one of Britain's most innovative writers of literary suspense. It brings alive the history of Florence at its most dramatic period, telling a compulsively absorbing story of love, art, religion, and power through the passionate voice of Alessandra, a heroine with the same vibrancy of spirit as her beloved city.

Året er 1527 og vi befinder os i renæssancens Italien. Her møder vi kurtisanen Fiametta og hendes trofaste ven og følgesvend dværgen Bucino. På flugt fra Rom og de indtrængende soldaters hærgen, sætter Fiametta og Bucino kursen mod Venedig. Med sig har de kun de diamanter, de kunne nå at sluge. De når til tops i den farverige by med rigdom, kunst og skønhed og møder alverdens spændende personligheder - alle med skjulte motiver.

Hannah Wolfe er privatdetektiv. Hun er vant til at finde forsvunde personer. Selv de der ikke ønsker at blive fundet, finder hun.Carolyn Hamilton er en talentfuld ung danser, der absolut ikke har nogen grund til at forsvinde. Men da hendes lig, med et otte uger gammelt foster, dukker op i Themsen med kjolens lommer fyldt med sten, bliver det, der startede som en tilsyneladende banal sag, mere indviklet. Især for en privatdetektiv, der forsøger at finde svar på nogle af sine egne spørgsmål om parforhold og moderskab.Ligsynet fastslår: død ved hændeligt uheld.Hannah fastslår noget helt andet. Hendes undersøgelse, for at udfylde de manglende måneder i Carolynes liv, fører hende gennem dansens verden. Fra London til Paris og, naturligvis, til en rig og magtfuld mand, der har helt sin egen historie at berette. Men er det sandheden han fortæller?Dans med døden er første bog om privatdetektiven Hannah Wolfe.

Fredag aften ringer telefonen hos Hannah Wolfe. Det er Frank, der har skaffet hende en ny opgave. Hannah, der er privatdetektiv, er ikke just begejstret. Næste dag skal hun hente en 14-årig pige fra hendes skole og bringe hende hjem til hendes far. Mattie viser sig at være en pige, der ikke blot er kvik og rap i replikken, men også yderst sikker på sig selv. Hannah er ikke sådan at bide skeer med og snart opstår en gensidig respekt, der pludselig bliver brudt, da pigen forsvinder i et flammehav for næsen af Hannah. Hvorfor? Hannah sætter sit liv på spil for at få et svar.I et væld af flammer er anden bog om privatdetektiven Hannah Wolfe.

Året er 1492, og Alessandra er knap 15 år, da hendes far, en velstående klædehandler, tager en maler med hjem fra Nordeuropa. Maleren skal udsmykke væggene i kapellet i familiens florentinske palazzo. Som barn af renæssancen, fremmelig og med talent for at tegne, beruses Alessandra af malerens evner.Hun bliver via maleren trukket ind i sin fødeby Firenze, hvor den nye tankefrihed lever side om side med de gamle, kødelige laster. Hun opdager, at ondskaben hærger i byens gader og er vidne til, hvordan den fundamentalistiske munk Savonarola kommer til magten. Alessandra og Firenze er fanget mellem mediciernes stat med dens luksus, lærdom og blændende kunst og Savonarolas trusler om helvede og den vold, hans tilhængere udøver. Og midt i det hele har maleren - og hans kunst - en stærk og voksende erotisk tiltrækning på Alessandra.VENUS' FØDSEL er en tour de force, begået af en af Englands mest fascinerende spændingsforfattere. Romanen giver et levende billede af Firenzes historie i den mest dramatiske periode og er med Alessandras lidenskabelige stemme en fængslende beretning om kærlighed, kunst, religion og magt. En bemærkelsesværdig heltinde med samme smittende livskraft som hendes elskede by.

Detektiven Hannah Wolfe er blevet sendt til den eksklusive skønhedsklinik Castle Dean – ikke for sit udseendes skyld, men for at arbejde. Mens hun bliver æltet, strakt og nappet, får dampbade og indsmøres i olie, prøver hun at finde frem til gerningsmændene bag forskellige sabotagehandlinger på klinikken. Fisk i boblebadet og jernsøm i massageapparaterne hører ikke til de eksotiske påfund, der gouteres af Castle Dean’s eksklusive klientel. Men sabotagehandlingerne er kun begyndelsen. Klinikkens ejer, den strålende Olivia Marchant, har også personlige problemer: Hendes mand Maurice – en af Londons førende plastik-kirurger, der har forsynet adskillige af denne verdens rige og berømte med et nyt udseende – udsættes for anonyme trusler.I skønhedsklinikkens specielle miljø, hvor ingen ønsker at blive ældre, og hvor alle har en urokkelig tro på knivens magt, er Hannah Wolfe en ubuden gæst. Hendes efterforskning fører hende vidt omkring – fra casinoer og rockstjerners garderober til en kunstmaler med speciale i fede kvinder og til det allerhelligste: Maurices konsultationsværelse.Hannah Wolfe får brug for al sin professionelle intuition, sin kløgt og sine medfødte instinkter i denne velskrevne og intelligente thriller om sex, forræderi og mord – og om den uhyggeligt høje pris, der undertiden betales for et godt udseende og skønhed.

Elizabeth Skorvecky sidder alene i sit store hus i en forstad til London og oversætter en ekstremt voldspornografisk kriminalroman fra tjekkisk. Hun er nervøs og forvirret, har netop afsluttet et syv år gammelt parforhold, hører mystiske lyde inde og ude og fornemmer, at nogen kommer og går i huset og flytter rundt på hendes ting. Gradvist smelter voldsthrillerens fantasiverden sammen med hendes egen virkelighed. Da voldsmanden vitterligt en nat dukker op, er hun parat.»Sarah Dunant er et af de mest spændende bekendtskaber blandt kvindelige britiske thriller-forfattere.«– Lars Ole Sauerberg, Jyllands-Posten »Sarah Dunant skriver godt, og Over grænsen er spændende og original.«– Thomas Harder, Politiken

Når et menneske, vi elsker, pludselig forsvinder, er fantasien det eneste, vi har tilbage.En dag pakker Anna sin kuffert uden at fortælle nogen, hvor hun skal hen, eller hvorfor hun rejser – hun siger bare, at hun snart er hjemme igen. Da hun går om bord på et fly, forestiller hun sig, at denne rejse vil give hende mulighed for at tænke over sit liv. En kvinde på vej til de 40, journalist og alenemor. Hun har ingen anelse om, at hun snart vil figurere på listen over forsvundne personer.Hjemme har hun efterladt sin 6-årige datter Lily, sin bøsseven Paul, der er Lilys papfar, og sin bedste veninde, den excentriske Estella. Da Anna ikke kommer tilbage, finder de på vage formodninger, indtil de en dag med forfærdende klarhed ser i øjnene, at hun muligvis aldrig vender hjem.Mens Annas nærtstående plages af forestillinger om, hvad der kan være hændt, er Anna på rejse i mørket – i ét scenario er hun på en dødsensfarlig, erotisk opdagelsesrejse, i et andet er hun offer for en vildtfremmed mands bizarre og voldelige, seksuelle fantasier.Kurs mod afgrunden sætter spørgsmålstegn ved vore forestillinger om, hvad der er sandt og ved de historier, vi finder på for at give vores liv mening.

A decade before her dazzling breakthrough novel, The Birth of Venus, author Sarah Dunant won Britain's prestigious Silver Dagger award for Fatlands, a Hannah Wolfe mystery.In Fatlands, private investigator Hannah Wolfe, who’s independent though not invincible, idealistic but definitely not naive, has taken on one of the less glamorous jobs in the security world—chaperoning teenage rebel Mattie Shepherd around London. But Mattie’s father is paying Hannah lots of money—more than the job is worth, it seems. Or perhaps not. The girl’s father is on the Animal Liberation Front’s hit list. But why? When violence explodes, tearing the family apart, this is what Hannah must discover. Her obsession with the truth nearly kills her, wrecking her private life and dragging her into a vortex of lies and betrayal.

A Times Best Historical Fiction Book of the YearA Cosmopolitan Best Book of the Year A History Today Book of the Year'Dunant has made completely her own the story of the Italy's most infamous ruling family . . . in a way that we can see, hear and smell' Mark Lawson, Guardian'A stunning tale of power and family . . . In Dunant's telling of the Borgia story, Lucrezia is not the sluttish power-crazed poisoner of legend . . . her glorious prose makes her version irresistible' Antonia Senior, The Times'Stuffed with violence, danger and passion' Daily Mail Conjuring up the past in all its complexity, horror and pleasures, In The Name of the Family confirms Sarah Dunant's place as the leading novelist of the Renaissance and one of the most acclaimed historical fiction writers of our age.In the Name of the Family - as Blood and Beauty did before - holds up a mirror to a turbulent moment of history, sweeping aside the myths to bring alive the real Borgia family; complicated, brutal, passionate and glorious. Here is a thrilling exploration of the House of Borgia's doomed years, in the company of a young diplomat named Niccolo Machiavelli.It is 1502 and Rodrigo Borgia, a self-confessed womaniser and master of political corruption is now on the Papal throne as Alexander VI. His daughter Lucrezia, aged twenty-two, already thrice married and a pawn in her father's plans, is discovering her own power. And then there is Cesare Borgia: brilliant, ruthless and increasingly unstable; it is his relationship with the diplomat Machiavelli which offers a master class on the dark arts of power and politics. What Machiavelli learns will go on to inform his great work of modern politics, The Prince.But while the pope rails against old age and his son's increasing maverick behavior it is Lucrezia who will become the Borgia survivor: taking on her enemies and creating her own place in history.

By the end of the fifteenth century, the beauty and creativity of Italy is matched only by its brutality and corruption. When Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia buys his way into the papacy, he is defined not just by his wealth, charisma and power, but by his blood: a Spanish Pope in a city run by Italians. If he is to succeed, he must use his Machiavellian son and innocent daughter.Stripping away the myths around the Borgias, Blood & Beauty breathes life into the astonishing family of Alexander VI and celebrates the raw power of history itself: compelling, complex, and relentless.

1570 in the Italian city of Ferrara. Sixteen-year-old Serafina is fipped by her family from an illicit love affair and forced into the convent of Santa Caterina, renowned for its superb music. Serafina's one weapon is her glorious voice, but she refuses to sing. Madonna Chiara, an abbess as fluent in politics as she is in prayer, finds her new charge has unleased a power play - rebellion, ecstasies and hysterias - within the convent. However, watching over Serafina is Zuana, the sister in charge of the infirmary, who understands and might even challenge her incarceration.

Anna packs her bags one day without telling anyone where and why she is going - just that she'll be back soon. Her thoughts as she boards a plane, are that this journey will give her time to think about her life - as a woman hitting forty, a journalist and a single mother. She has no premonition that she will become a statistic in a missing person file. Left at home is Anna's beloved six-year-old daughter Lily, her gay friend Paul, who is surrogate father to Lily, and her eccentric best friend Estella. When Anna doesn't return, they make uneasy excuses until, as time passes, the mind-numbing possibility that Anna might not be coming back becomes terrifyingly real. And while those closest to her battle with their imaginations, Anna is on a dark journey - in one scenario Anna is on a ravishing, sexual adventure, on the other, much darker voyage, she is the victim of a stranger's dangerous sexual fantasy. In a masterpiece of emotionally intelligent and nerve-wracking suspense, Sarah Dunant takes us to the very edge.

Terrifying, dark and bold, Sarah Dunant's breakthrough psychological thriller transcends genres and audiences; it crosses all boundaries, encroaching on the darker side of sex and fantasy, male and female. Elizabeth Skorvecky has just come out of a long-term relationship with her boyfriend. Alone in her Victorian house, her only companions are her cat, a trashy crime novel she's translating from Czech, and her music. As the summer ends and the days draw in, unsettling things begin to happen. First it's just a missing CD, then music playing in an empty kitchen at midnight, then a table laid for breakfast for two. Poltergeist? Insanity? When Elizabeth wakes at four in the morning to find a man sitting at the end of her bed, she knows, sickeningly , she's very sane - and being stalked. She also discovers that the means of surviving can be just as shocking as surrender.

Alessandra is not quite fifteen when her prosperous merchant father brings a young painter back with him from Holland to adorn the walls of the new family chapel. She is fascinated by his talents and envious of his abilities and opportunities to paint to the glory of God. Soon her love of art and her lively independence are luring her into closer involvement with all sorts of taboo areas of life. On excursions into the streets of night-time Florence she observes a terrible evil stalking the city and witnesses the rise of the fiery young priest, Savanarola, who has set out to rid the city of vice, richness, even art itself.Alessandra must make crucial decisions about the shape of her adult life, as Florence itself must choose between the old ways of the luxury-loving Medicis and the asceticism of Savanorola. And through it all, there is the painter, whose love will change everything.

With their stomachs churning on the jewels they have swallowed, the courtesan Fiammetta and her companion dwarf Bucino escape the sack of Rome. It's 1527. They head for the shimmering, decadent city of Venice. Sarah Dunant's epic novel of sixteenth-century Renaissance Italy is a story about the sins of pleasure and the pleasures of sin, an intoxicating mix of fact and fiction, and a dazzling portait of one of the worlds greatest cities at its most potent moment in history.

A decade before her dazzling breakthrough novel, The Birth of Venus, Silver Dagger Award-winning author Sarah Dunant won critical acclaim for her Hannah Wolfe crime novels. In Under My Skin, private investigator Hannah Wolfe's cushy new assignment takes her to the sumptuous Castle Dean health spa. While being plucked, crimped, steamed, and oiled, Hannah is ideally placed to probe some reported cases of sabotage -- fish in the Jacuzzi and steel nails in the massage heads. But spa owner Olivia Marchant has other problems besides sabotage. Someone is threatening her husband, Maurice, one of London's leading cosmetic surgeons and the man responsible for reconstructing many of the world's rich and famous. In a culture where no one wants to grow old and everyone seems to believe in the power of the knife, Hannah feels like an alien visitor. People will do anything in the name of beauty -- perhaps even commit murder.

In a place where lies ring true and truth sounds like lies - whose seductive tale can you believe? From the bestselling author of The Birth of Venus, Sarah Dunant's first thriller is as fresh as if it had been written today.