Maggie Pacelli is an artist, currently working on a set of paintings for a new tarot deck. When Maggie's sister, a Yale professor, introduces her to Michael LeClaire, the new curator of the Beinecke Library, at a party, they are immediately taken with one another. Michael offers to show Maggie the 15th-century Visconti tarot deck recently received by the library from an anonymous donor. When Michael reveals to Maggie that the Devil cards are missing from all of the surviving Visconti decks, her imagination is fired, especially as the Devil is one of the cards she has not yet decided how to paint.

Accompanied by Michael, Maggie travels to Milan to see if she can track down any hint of what the Visconti Devils might have looked like. There, she meets the handsome Luca Arcangeli, who claims to have information on the missing cards. But his price is higher than Maggie might want to pay.

The Visconti Devils is a romance novel with a hint of mystery and a paranormal twist. The story is well-paced, and not predictable unless you're paying strict attention. Maggie is a strong, likeable character, someone easy to root for. If, by the end, you're not desperately hoping for a happy ending, then you haven't been ensnared by The Visconti Devils.

by Laurie Thayer
Rambles.NET
31 March 2007