In 2005, my wife and I visited Italy for the first time. It would be the beginning of a long fascination with a country and its denizens that continues to this day. Numerous trips to all regions of Italy have been our reward. It was on that initial excursion, as we traveled around 80 miles southeast of Rome, that a guide pointed to a mountain off in the distance and made a passing remark about the ruins of Monte Cassino, a monastery located on a rocky hill above the village of Cassino. The Abbey had been a revered historical symbol for centuries. Inside the buildings, monks would work to preserve religious documents and ancient texts to ensure that they were not lost to the effects of time.

"Entertaining and compelling, this extremely well-written and fast-paced novel uses many factual events as a background. Readers will enjoy the book’s history and drama, as well as Miller’s captivating cast of characters."

But as Allied forces advanced up the Italian peninsula and the Germans defended positions in central Italy, the Allies believed that Monte Cassino was a fortified observation post. Allied bombers flew missions over the site on February 15, 1944. Bombs raining down on the structure reduced it to rubble. In the cloister of the Abbey, the statue of Saint Benedict still stood, but it had been decapitated by the attack. Before repeated shelling brought the monastery to ruins, centuries of artifacts had been moved out of the Abbey to other locations. The total destruction of Monte Cassino evoked mixed emotions on both sides and remains one of the most debated decisions of the Second World War.

THE CURSE OF PIETRO HOUDINI, Derek B. Miller’s brilliantly imagined work of fiction, focuses on many of the events surrounding the eventual attack on Monte Cassino. But the book is not about military history. Instead, it reads far more like a heist novel revolving around the art treasures located in Monte Cassino and the multiple efforts to both pillage and save them. Because the monastery housed a treasure trove of art and since Italians, Germans and Americans wanted the valuable pieces, many people had plans and schemes for what might happen to them.

One such individual was Pietro Houdini, a mysterious man with a shadowy past. As the novel opens in the rubble and destruction of Rome, the inscrutable Houdini finds a young Italian refugee named Massimo and brings him to the Abbey for safety. Houdini may well have other reasons for doing this, but those motives remain somewhat vague to readers.

For his part, Massimo has his own agenda, separate from the rescue of artifacts, but also is shrouded in mystery. He hopes to get to Naples in an effort to find any surviving family members, but Houdini stalls him. “I suggest you wait for the right moment,” he tells Massimo. “When is that?” asks the young man. “Moments present themselves. That’s what makes them moments.”

Arriving at the Abbey, Houdini and Massimo confront two German officers who are hard at work removing as many artifacts as possible. The salvage efforts at Monte Cassino, like many other undertakings of the war, are massive in scope. Try to imagine moving an entire wing of the Louvre or the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is beyond anyone's ability to comprehend. The efforts of Houdini and Massimo to save some of these treasures is enthralling, bold and heartbreaking.

Entertaining and compelling, this extremely well-written and fast-paced novel uses many factual events as a background. Readers will enjoy the book’s history and drama, as well as Miller’s captivating cast of characters.