The Glass Thief of Murano
A Novel of Renaissance Espionage

About this book:

In the shadowed furnaces of Murano, where sand and ash are transmuted into glass worth more than gold, a single secret has kept Venice rich and Europe in thrall for a century. Now, Catherine de' Medici has sent a reluctant scholar-spy to steal it—or burn trying.

Julien de la Roche has three weeks to infiltrate the island's hermetic guild, win the trust of a dying maestro, and decode the alchemy of *cristallo* before the Council of Ten's assassins find him. But Murano is a prison disguised as a paradise, where every artisan's daughter is a bargaining chip, every furnace hides a ledger of poisoned debts, and the line between apprentice and prisoner vanishes in the smoke.

From the backstairs of the Louvre to the tide-washed canals of Cannaregio, *The Glass Thief of Murano* fuses Renaissance espionage with the seductive danger of forbidden knowledge—where a formula written in fire can topple empires, and clarity comes at the price of blood.