However, while at times the book shows sparks of what it could have been, for several reasons I ended up disappointed in it and found the whole thing to be surprisingly stodgy.Įnnis tells us in the acknowledgements that his original manuscript has been heavily edited, and this may be a factor. The differences between Leonardo's approach to solving the murder mystery and Machiavelli's offer a particularly intriguing area of exploration. From faith and fate versus superstition and witchcraft to the emerging scientific approaches of Leonardo's obsessions with measurement and counting to Machiavelli's interest in what we'd now call psychology. It's historical fiction meets crime fiction.Įnnis gets to explore a lot of conflicts. Candidates range from his brother, Cesare Borgia, Juan's courtesan, Damiata to the heads of various powerful, mercenary families. The core story is an attempt to discover the identity of the murderer of the pope's son, Juan Borgia, Duke of Gandia. What he seeks to add to the party is an insight into why and how these events occurred and certainly there are some unexplained gaps in the relationships of the key players. The real life political wrangling of the times would stretch the imagination of most novelists and Ennis bases his tale on a huge number of real, documented happenings. With the Borgia family dominating both the papacy and several political regions, fighting for power and land, a number of family led mercenary armies, and several great figures who would leave a lasting legacy, notably Leonardo Da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli, the latter of whom narrates a very large part of this novel. Ennis is a history lecturer so unsurprisingly, his book is full of evidence of detailed research and understanding of the times. Michael Ennis sets his The Malice of Fortune in Italy in the early part of the 1500s. Summary: This historic crime fiction set in the world of Leonardo and Machiavelli is more Umberto Eco than Dan Brown - which is a good thing - but it's a heavy going read and lacking in the characterisation that would lift this compelling story.

The malice of fortune