I will say that the book left me interested in reading more about the Borgias and Machiavelli, so I am doing that now. The book was a bit of an apologia about why Machiavelli wrote The Prince - maybe even an excuse. The book seemed to be showing the reader how Machiavelli was developing, or proving, his theories about the nature of man, and how he came to develop the ideas in the Prince. I was intrigued, but not sold, because I was not sold on who he named as Giovanni's killer - no spoiler offered here. It was also the author's way of saying that Machiavelli spotted psychopathology in man long before such a thing had a name. And that by knowing this one can predict how a man will think and act in a given situation.
I was expecting a book where the two historic figures worked together, but really this was a book, as least the last half was, about Machiavelli's theories about how men think and act and how that thinking and acting has always been and will always be the same if one just follows history. I was especially disappointed by how da Vinci was treated by the author. I got into his voice and his head and the book got better, but still didn't quite get to where I thought it would go. The first half of the book is told by an alleged mistress of Giovanni Borgia. The book was okay but did not live up to what I was expecting. The premise of Machiavelli and da Vinci working together to solve a crime is what hooked me - two historic figures that intrigue me.
I bought the book from Amazon via my Kindle that evening. I heard this novel being talked about on NPR one day as I was driving around town running errands.
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