Hammett Prize for Best Crime Fiction
Edgar Winner Domenic Stansberry returns with this sultry, irresistible murder mystery. The White Devil tells the story of an aspiring American actress, who, together with her too charming brother, is implicated in a series of crimes dating back to their childhood days. The novel begins in Rome, among the American ex-patriot community, and from there follows the siblings' latest obsessions: an aging Italian actress and her charismatic husband. The young woman at the heart of this tale plays a deadly game, a cipher of unwholesome impulse and erotic intrigue. The result is an elegant tour de force, a psychological noir that has won international acclaim and attention.
PRAISE
Stansberry nails the sultry, decadent, and erotically charged tone with one perfectly placed hammer stroke after another. Booklist
Edgar-winner Stansberry takes the reader on a wild ride in this exceptional noir. .... compelling reading. Publisher's Weekly Starred Review
A glittering noir triumph ... recounted in a delirious, shimmeringly erotic flow, The White Devil is a possessed, fever dream of a book, an unwise third cocktail that proves impossible to resist. Irish Times
Perhaps the most surprising feature of this tour de force is its pervasive links to both Jacobean tragedy and contemporary Mediterranean noir. Who knew? Kirkus
Gripping from beginning to end, The White Devil is an unforgettable novel by an author at the height of his powers.Foreword Reviews (5 stars)
Intoxicating, ... Rome is brilliantly captured, as is Italian society, but it is the tragic heroine and her flawed brother that linger in the mind. London Daily Mail
A stunning piece of noir... evokes both the Rome of Fellini and shades of Patricia Highsmith... a breathless tale which shifts effortlessly from beauty to crime. CrimeTime.com July Book of the Month
Voluptuous and sharply delineated...The story is glamorous, and the political and judicial system in its Italian fluidity is well portrayed... The backdrop of sultry and crumbling Rome lends the whole story a hot and crackling ambience. Tripfiction. com
An absolutely incredible book, it's an intoxicating and exciting tale of jealousy and murder... Reading Domenic Stansberry's prose in The White Devil is like entering a dreamscape: everything is familiar yet peculiar; erotic yet sinister... both a gripping crime novel and a literary one. Literary Cocktail
The White Devil is based on a 400-year-old play of the same name by John Webster. But there is nothing derivative... Narrator Vicki is a cypher and also an archetype. The ultimate femme fatale, she emits loneliness and sadness that make her as compelling an anti-heroine as she is prospective bride. SHOTS: Crime & Thriller E-zine
Excellent... Menace, murder and eroticism lurk... moves slinkily amid the corruption of Rome, the Vatican, and Malibu.Sunday Times (UK) Top 10 Summer Crime Club Selection