Giulia Tofana

The Giulia Tofana series reimagines the legendary poisoner against the courts, convents, workshops and political intrigues of seventeenth-century Italy. Beginning with Giulia’s flight to Naples, the sequence follows her attempts to survive a reputation built around Aqua Tofana while protecting those closest to her. Later volumes carry the story through Rome and Venice, bringing the family into contact with artists, churchmen, astrologers and the rivalries surrounding the papal court.

The novels blend crime, romance and political intrigue with the uncertain historical record surrounding Tofana. Giulia’s story is deliberately treated as historical fiction rather than settled biography: the series uses the legends that accumulated around her while placing them within recognisable social and religious pressures of Baroque Italy.