“Tell me a story!” many of the characters exclaim. And what a story James Markert tells in “Midnight at the Tuscany Hotel.”
Told in a similar manner to a time-jump novel, “Midnight at the Tuscany Hotel” tells the story of the Gandy family, starting in 1866 and jumping to 1929, the 1930s, 1945-46, and 2019.
The story revolves around Vittorio Gandy after his return from World War II, a broken man suffering from severe combat exhaustion, or what we might call PTSD today. He is filled with paranoia, delusions, hallucinations and nightmares. When he almost kills his wife, Valerie, he finally gets help.
In the meantime, his father, the great Renaissance Man and sculptor Robert Gandy is suffering from Alzheimer’s. When he runs away to the Tuscany Hotel he built for his beloved wife Magdalena and once made majestic, Vitto and Valerie follow him — to a hotel filled with mystery, magic and miracles.
When water from the hotel’s fountain seems to heal Robert’s memory issues, scores of elderly flock to the hotel for restoration — but does that restoration come with a cost?
“Midnight at the Tuscany Hotel” is a beautiful story of rebirth, healing, forgiveness, restoration and enigma. Relying heavily on stories taken from Greek mythology, Markert does a great job of creating a story that causes the reader to question — where does the healing power come from; why does there seem to be mystery surrounding the births of both Robert and Magdalena; just who is the enigmatic Juba, the hotel bartender who’s been with Robert and Magdalena since the beginning; and what’s the story of the clock hanging at the hotel?
Markert also does an amazing job of developing characters — most are deeply flawed, but some are also purely delightful, like Juba and John Johnson, a fellow soldier Vitto meets in the hospital. He also does a great job of providing several through-provoking themes, like love is a choice, not just an emotion; strength can only bend so far before it breaks; we can choose to be either a barrel of sunshine or a barrel of stones; memories can both hurt and heal; and the importance of doing for others.
With a supernatural bent, fans of writers like Billy Coffey and Shawn Smucker, as well as even Stephen King, will enjoy author James Markert and his latest novel “Midnight at the Tuscany Hotel.”
Five stars out of five.
Thomas Nelson provided this complimentary copy for my honest, unbiased review.