BOOK REVIEW: Black Souls An adventure across cultures

Sabina Gabrielli Carrara’s thriller Black Souls welcomes readers to both Ireland and Italy, but you don’t have to live there to enjoy her dark psychological tale of murder and family intrigue. In Black Souls we follow the charmed life of Lola Owen, a woman of Italian descent living peacefully with her husband and children in Ireland. She believes her mother to be a distant memory, following a traumatic suicide when she was young, and has sequestered her remaining Italian family members to the past as well – only they don’t want to stay forgotten. Lola’s cousin, Giulia, and her aunt, Mara, find themselves at odds with one another over the future of their property, the Kopfler Grand Hotel, a matter which is only compounded by unforeseen events, and both gel into a furious drama full of scorn, revelations, bloodshed, and murder. Lola finds herself knee deep in the family’s internal drama whether she wants it or not, especially when it brings violence to her very quiet Irish life, and resolves with her husband Fergus to travel to her childhood home in Ponte Alto, Italy, and settle matters once and for all.

Expertly paced and full of relatable characters that wouldn’t be out of place in any country, Black Souls puts us on a train ride of thrills, over bumps and twists, to a nail biting and surprising finish.