The Ancestor

A Novel

By: Danielle Trussoni

Narrated by: Heather Masters

From the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally best-selling author of the Angelology series comes a bewitching gothic novel of suspense that plunges listeners into a world of dark family secrets, the mysteries of human genetics, and the burden of family inheritance.

It feels like a fairy tale when Alberta ”Bert” Monte receives a letter addressed to “Countess Alberta Montebianco” at her Hudson Valley, New York, home that claims she’s inherited a noble title, money, and a castle in Italy. While Bert is more than a little skeptical, the mystery of her aristocratic family’s past, and the chance to escape her stressful life for a luxury holiday in Italy, is too good to pass up.

At first, her inheritance seems like a dream come true: a champagne-drenched trip on a private jet to Turin, Italy; lawyers with lists of artwork and jewels bequeathed to Bert; a helicopter ride to an ancestral castle nestled in the Italian Alps below Mont Blanc; a portrait gallery of ancestors Bert never knew existed; and a cellar of expensive vintage wine for Bert to drink. But her ancestry has a dark side, and Bert soon learns that her family history is particularly complicated. As Bert begins to unravel the Montebianco secrets, she begins to realize her true inheritance lies not in a legacy of ancestral treasures, but in her very genes.

©2020 Danielle Trussoni (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

The Ancestor by Trussoni

A great gothic tale crammed with unbelievable characters brought to life in a castle in the Italian Alps. This story of an inheritance touches on the human emotions of love and hate, loyalty and legend, hope and responsibility. I love ancestry and the truth that comes from it. Like it or not, DNA does not lie. See for yourself. This is truly a novel to get lost in, finding your own roots and comparisons. Well written and narrated superbly by Heather Masters. A must listen or read.

It Could Have Been Better If....(Spoiler Alert)

First of all, I am a huge, huge fan of the genre. I am becoming a big fan of Danielle Trussoni.

I am old school, and I believe this could have been a terrific horror story. I would have liked to see the family secret be that they are werewolves, or vampires, or immortal, instead of Yeti. It's easier to believe in Werewolves than it is to believe in Yeti's in Europe. Vita could have been the 102 year old countess who did not look a day over 27. But. It's not my story. Not my characters. I still enjoyed it.

Inferior modern gothic, more parody than homage

I was really looking forward to this, as a bit of fun neo-gothic escapism. The New York Times book review, which invoked Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey ( which, in turn and at its time, head invoked The Castle of Otranto) made me expect much, much more. instead, I found The Ancestor written in such broad stoke, lacking in nuance, as to read as parody rather than smart modern "take" on the genre, or as homage. The orotahonist/heroine unfortunately comes across as something of a simpleton (rather than as an intelligent, though rather naive and impressionable young woman, as in those earlier classic works). And it made no sense at all that, within the first few of chapters, her ex-husband ostensibly storms off without explanation, and she readily believes it's because he was angered by her insistence on knowing information about her family that he doesn't want to disclose-- and blames herself!-- when he is the one that's being evasive! it does not help at all that the audio book is being narrated by someone who sounds like they're about 18 years old. The alternatingly plaintive and strident tone wore on me and further diminished the material. Could not get through it.

Provocative but potential unrealized

The story of (spoiler) the role of the icemen in the narrator’s life provocatively unfolds to lead us to think about what it means to be human. The main character, however, repeatedly behaves in an unbelievably passive manner when told she is the new heir and boss. She is attacked by an employee’s dog, and held prisoner in the castle, failing to assert her rights as heir. She strangely makes no case for her staff to organize a helicopter for her husband’s visit when the future of the family depends on her having a child. We are told her husband has skills that are needed in organizing the various businesses, yet she doesn’t try to assert her right to bring him in. Despite these plot issues, the author provides a sense of place that will make you feel you have experienced Italy’s northern Alpine region and you have experienced what it might be like to meet a tribe of distant hominid ancestors. You know what they look like. You will have considered all the issues of contact and will never feel the same about the Alps or flat feet.

interesting concept

I've not read a book like this before about well what this book is about. I don't want to spoil it. I feel Luke there could have been better explanations with some things.

Another masterpiece by Ms. Trussoni

The story was fascinating and created wonderful imagery in my mind. All heightened by the fantastic acting by the Ms. Masters.

Very unique

I really enjoyed this story. The writing, while being a bit too easy of a read, is compelling enough to keep on during the building of the plot & ive not ever read anything with a plot quite like this before which was a pleasant surprise (113 books read this year; it’s hard to surprise me). Overall, I am pleased with this purchase and definitely recommend this novel especially for fans of Victorian Gothic horror novels.

Love this author

Her books make you think “could this be true?” Maybe.....
This one was very Interesting. I love the descriptions of the mountains

It is just another mythology gone wrong

This book have such a strong potential to be more but the delivery of the story line just broken at the beginning,the middle and finally at the end. It have a very intriguing ideology but they never go further than that. I was hoping for more WOW but it fell flat. The narrator was ok but not great. I can not figure out if she was mad,sad or anything. I kept going and see where it would take me. It took me to no where. The more I listened,the more I wish for it to end. It was draining me to have to keep going. But as the story seems to get a little better. They introduced all these characters that some I seriously thought might be strong point. It went no where again. Skip it if you want more mystery and not predictability.

I enjoyed very much!

While it is true that one can imagine scenarios arising from the storyline, the reader should not pretend that they are the writer. Let the writer tell her story even as the characters dictate the story to her (yes, that is a real thing that happens as you write), and Danielle Trussoni did such a marvelous job in telling their story. Her descriptions were vivid and realistic. Her relating of the emotions of Bert, Vita, and Elenor were so real that you could feel them. I used to go the the nursing home where my wife was a nurse, and sit for hours listening to the life stories of the elderly; for me Trussoni was as delightful and fascinating as those of the elderly in the nursing home. And, YES, that is a high compliment.