The Ivory Tower

You can’t run from yourself, but your past will always be with you…

An engrossing, layered thriller revealing different forms of madness and ways to fight it.

Never has the phrase “to lose your mind” been so literal…

Mara Paladini, who once was a patient in a specialized psychiatric clinic called “The Structure,” dreamed of a new life in freedom. Now she lives the way she wanted. Mara built herself a Tower of ivory—walls made of white boxes that limit her living space, from which she almost never leaves. She seeks to isolate herself from the world and sees in the Tower a mouth that could swallow her at any moment. But she finds that acceptable.

However, one small damp stain on the ceiling ruins her plan. Water is leaking in the apartment above. That means the end of the Tower. When Mara climbs to the neighbor, she discovers him dead. He was killed with a plant poison she knows well…

Known because Mara is actually Mariéle Piziano, the Poisoner from Sestri-Levante. Thirteen years ago, during an episode of madness, she poisoned her family—her husband and small children. That led her to “The Structure.” The neighbor’s death means someone learned her true identity and is trying to frame her. Those who provided her new life under the guise of Mara Paladini know who she is, what she did, and how it happened…