Changes

|title=A Name in Blood

|sort=Name in Blood

|publisher=Corvus

|date=July 2012

|website=http://www.mattrees.net

|summary=This book about Caravaggio (the man, the life and the mystery he left behind) is historical fiction with a twist on reality. You don't have to be art-curious to enjoy this look at the dangers and intrigues of 16th century Rome, but by the time you've finished, you may be.

}}

Artist Michelangelo Merisi is best known by a location: Caravaggio, his home town. He grew up acquainted with the ugly side of life and death, having witnessed the plague-ridden deaths of his father and grandfather on the same day. However he was also born with the ability to create beauty in his art. He's able to make a living adorning the churches and fine houses of Rome, but Caravaggio walks a fine line. On one side is the wildness and carousing he needs to feel alive and on the other is the need to placate the powers that be. When those powers happen to be a pope who's a Borgia and a patron who's a Borgia's nephew, then the line is very fine indeed. Add complications like a beautiful woman and a life-long commitment to preserving the well being of a headstrong noble, leading him to the knights of Malta, and a life of difficulty becomes one of impossibility. Then something else happens... Caravaggio completely vanishes from history, taking the intrigue up to a whole new level.