The Curse of Pietro Houdini

There are so many different angles an author can explore when writing about the horrific events of World War II and the Holocaust.  Author Derek Miller has found an unusual and very interesting path to follow as he presents the Nazis attack on Italy and its historic art and architecture. 

The setting is a Benedictine Abbey near Montecassino, Italy.  It is 1944 as the Allied Forces are trying to push back the German army.  The story Miller tells in this novel is about a major military operation that has gone mostly unnoticed.  It is not a heroic story, like the attack at Normandy Beach. In this instance, the Americans mistakenly believed the monastery to be occupied by Nazi forces.  Their pilots dropped more bombs on this building than any other single building during the war.  Many people were killed as the battle raged on for months.  There had been a large influx of thousands of irreplaceable manuscripts, paintings and other art hidden in the abbey for safekeeping the year before. But two officers, a German and an Austrian, worked with the monks to load much of the art onto carts and move it out to Rome ahead of the invasion.

Miller presents two protagonists, Pietro Houdini and the young person he rescues who was left beaten in a gutter, as they approach the Montecassino Abbey.  As his name implies Pietro is a master of illusion. He is a larger than life character, who by his own description claims to be, “master artist and confidant of the Vatican.”   His assistant is Massimo, a fourteen year old orphan whose parents were killed during a bombing in Rome.  Both of these characters along with the many others they encounter have something to hide.  

Massimo is the narrator of this story, recounting the tale that brought them to Montecassino and the experiences that led Houdini to perform the stunts he did and what he taught Massimo along the way.  Houdini educates Massimo in the art of misdirection and sleight of hand to save the artwork hidden in the monastery.  Through a variety of experiences and tribulations they are joined by a monk, a cafe owner who will murder to protect her family, a nurse with a past to conceal and a wounded German soldier who does not want to return to battle. The group becomes in the author's words, “a posse of misfits who had nothing in common but a generic and shared compulsion to keep on living.”  Together they will try to thwart the Nazis and save others.

The plot uncovers a rich historical story propelled by intrigue, drama and high stakes risks that explores the horrors of life during World War II.  The characters learn that heroes and powerful bonds can grow as relationships are created and love can grow as tragic situations are faced together.  Massimo matures and changes through all their encounters.  

Though the artwork in this novel is fictitious, the author brings to life this amazing little known history by exposing a real masterpiece covered by layers of confusion and misdirection.