With her debut novel “Ice of Bombay” Leslie Forbes thundered throughout the world. Selling two million copies and translated into many languages, the book, which has been compared to Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum and Peter Høeg's Smilla and Her Sense of Snow, set a new standard for the intellectual thriller genre. “The Ice of Bombay” was followed by the novel “Fish, Blood, Bones,” which was also a huge success, and finally, for the first time in Russian, the writer’s third novel, “The Awakening of Raphael,” was published. On its pages, modern Italy literally comes to life - a country on the eve of the second Renaissance, where the comic and tragic, romance and violence are closely intertwined. The action takes place in idyllic Urbino, Raphael's hometown. English restorer Charlotte Penton is working on restoring Raphael's painting "The Mute", and television is making a film about it, and both television people and local machos are hovering around the sexy Canadian Donna, a young actress who hopes that participation in this television project will launch her stellar career . When, during the grand opening of the restored canvas, it is damaged by a madwoman with a knife, and then the canvas miraculously bleeds, inconvenient secrets from the past begin to emerge as if on cue, and even the powerful mafia is forced to seek outside help...

Masterfully exploring the relationships between art, religion and politics, Leslie Forbes weaves a gripping narrative bursting with genuine human drama. Light, taste, smells - Italy reveals itself to the reader in all its glory... A true feast for connoisseurs of intellectual thrillers in the spirit of Arturo Perez-Reverte or Ian Pearce.Booklist

Forbes easily overcomes the inherent limitations of the genre, and not only thanks to her extensive erudition, polished writing style, impeccable storytelling talent: her main merit is the creation of absolutely living characters with whom you empathize from the first page to the last... She managed to write an intellectual thriller in the best traditions of “The Name of the Rose.” The Wall Street Journal

Of course, Leslie Forbes is not limited to the history of the restoration of the painting - it is not for nothing that she has earned the fame of a master of the thriller. And only a real mute woman, who once witnessed a crime so monstrous that she was left speechless, can shed light on the mystery of Raphael’s “Mute.” As in the two previous novels - "Ice of Bombay" and "Fish, Blood, Bones", - the main plot line is supported by a natural wave of additional information: here you have politics with art history, and haute cuisine with the history of religious forgeries...Guardian