The Venus of Salo
Ben Pastor
October 1944, in the Republic of Salò, a German puppet state in the north of Italy and the last fascist stronghold in the country. After months of ferocious fighting on the Gothic Line, Colonel Martin Bora of the Wehrmacht must investigate the theft of a precious painting of Venus by Titian, stolen with uncanny ease from a local residence. While Bora’s inquiry proceeds among many difficulties, the discovery of three dead bodies throws an even more sinister light on the scene.
Caught in an unforeseeable web of events, hounded by the Gestapo, hopelessly in love with an enigmatic, in-the-flesh “Venus”, Bora must summon all his courage and ability – not only to solve the mystery and expose the perpetrator but also, in a breath-taking crescendo, to try to save himself from the firing squad.
