Two years after disappearing on the eve of taking vows to join the sisterhood of the holy convent of San Lorenzo, the body of Giovanna della Terra is found in a shallow grave near the convent, a surprise to many because she was believed to have eloped with a young workman who also disappeared at the same time. The bigger surprise, though, is the body's condition. Even after two years in soggy ground that should have hastened the body's decay, it emerged from its grave in a condition of perfect preservation, as though she was only sleeping. Reginaldo Morosini, normally special criminal consultant to Venice's Council of Ten, is called in as a physician to examine the condition of the body to determine if reports of the body's incorruptible nature are true. Regardless of the seemingly miraculous preservation of the body, it is still evident that the young novitiate's death is anything but natural. Reginaldo soon finds himself digging into the inner sanctums of the convent of San Lorenzo to reveal who murdred Giovanna della Terra. Novella Gli Incorruptibili (The Incorruptibles)
In addition to the novella, Gli Incorruptibili, in five short stories, Reginaldo Morosini investigates and solves baffling murders or other heinous crimes in the palazzos, canals and calli of 16th Century Venice: the murder of a blind alchemist returning to Venice after being exiled for deaths relating to an alchemy experiment gone wrong years before, "Alchemia (Alchemy)"; a murder seemingly committed by a deranged killer who had perished in a fire years previously, "Fantasmi di Sant' Agostino (Ghosts of Saint Augustine)"; the killing of a priest inside a small church, "Vero Confesion (True Confession):" the child snatching of the son of a police official, "Peccati del Figlio, Peccati del Padre (Sins of the Son, Sins of the Father)"; and the brutal murder of the two owners and their servant of a small tavern, "Il Gato (The Cat)."
Recognized for his skill at solving murders and other crimes, Reginaldo Morosini faithfully (although sometimes reluctantly), answers the call of Venice's Council of Ten to serve as consultore speciale criminale (special criminal consultant) to solve disturbing and unsettling crimes along the canals of Venice that hold special interest for the Republic's highest governmental agency.
