Florence New Year's Day 1557. As dawn breaks a painter is discovered lying on the floor of a
church stabbed through the heart. Above him the paintings he laboured over for more than a
decade. At his home a hidden painting scandalously depicting Maria de Medici daughter of the
Duke and Duchess of Florence as a naked Venus. Who is the murderer? Who is behind the
painting? As the city erupts in chaos Giorgio Vasari the great art historian is picked to
lead the investigation. Letters fly back and forth carrying news of political plots and
speculation about the killer's identity - between Maria and her aunt Catherine de' Medici the
queen of France between Catherine and her scheming agents in Florence and between Vasari and
his friend Michelangelo. Meanwhile the Pope is banning books and branding works of art
immoral. And the truth when it comes to light is as shocking as the bold new artworks that
have made Florence the red-hot centre of Europe. Bursting with characters and colour
Perspectives is a mystery like no other that shows us Renaissance Florence as we've never seen
it before - a dazzling hugely entertaining novel of court machinations murder and art.
