03 Dec Deborah Swift The Cameo Keeper #HistoricalFiction #Renaissance #GiuliaTofana #Poison #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @swiftstory @cathiedunn

FEATURED AUTHOR: DEBORAH SWIFT

I’m pleased to host Deborah Swift again as the featured author in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour being held between November 13th – December 4th, 2025. Deborah Swift is the author of the Historical Fiction, The Cameo Keeper (Giulia Tofana Series), published by Quire Books on 11th November 2025 (370 pages). 

Below are highlights of The Cameo Keeper, Deborah Swift’s author bio, and her guest post about the legendary prisoner Giulia Tofana and background research for her book.

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/10/blog-tour-the-cameo-keeper-by-deborah-swift.html

HIGHLIGHTS: THE CAMEO KEEPER

The Cameo Keeper
(Giulia Tofana Series)
by Deborah Swift
Audiobook read by Diana Croft

Blurb:

Rome 1644: A Novel of Love, Power, and Poison

Remember tonight… for it is the beginning of always ― Dante Alighieri

In the heart of Rome, the conclave is choosing a new Pope, and whoever wins will determine the fate of the Eternal City.

Astrologer Mia and her fiancé Jacopo, a physician at the Santo Spirito Hospital, plan to marry, but the election result is a shock and changes everything.

As Pope Innocent X takes the throne, he brings along his sister-in-law, the formidable Donna Olimpia Maidalchini, known as La Papessa – the female Pope. When Mia is offered a position as her personal astrologer, she and Jacopo find themselves on opposite sides of the most powerful family in Rome.

Mia is determined to protect her mother, Giulia Tofana, a renowned poisoner. But with La Papessa obsessed with bringing Giulia to justice, Mia and Jacopo’s love is put to the ultimate test.

As the new dawn of Renaissance medicine emerges, Mia must navigate the dangerous political landscape of Rome while trying to protect her family and her heart. Will she be able to save her mother, or will she lose everything she holds dear?

For fans of “The Borgias” and “The Crown,” this gripping tale of love, power, and poison will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

Praise:

‘historical fiction that is brisk, fresh and bristling with intrigue’ ~ Bookmarked Reviews ★★★★★

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link: https://mybook.to/CameoKeeper

AUTHOR BIO: DEBORAH SWIFT

Deborah Swift is the author of twenty novels of historical fiction.

Her Renaissance novel in this series, The Poison Keeper, was recently voted Best Book of the Decade by the Wishing Shelf Readers Award. Her WW2 novel Past Encounters was the winner of the BookViral Millennium Award, and is one of seven books set in the WW2 era.

Deborah lives in the North of England close to the mountains and the sea.

Author Links:

Website: www.deborahswift.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deborahswiftauthor/

Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/swiftstory

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authordeborahswift/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/deborahswift1/

GUEST POST BY DEBORAH SWIFT

GIULIA TOFANA —LEGENDARY PRISONER

I first came across Giulia Tofana on the internet when I was researching herbs for a different novel. I was immediately fascinated but somewhat daunted as it was quickly apparent that she was more of a legend than a real historical figure, although undoubtedly that figure was grounded in truth. By far the best and most thorough article about her online is this one by Mike Dash. https://mikedashhistory.com/2015/04/06/aqua-tofana-slow-poisoning-and-husband-killing-in-17th-century-italy/

This was my starting point, and I probably followed his footsteps a lot of the way, but I needed more context because I had her family and a whole society to build, not just one woman. What was clear though, was that she was responsible for a lot of deaths by poison! Dash’s article contains a thorough list of references most I which I consulted through Academia and JStor, where academic papers are available to subscribers for a fee. This included articles by the British Medical Journal on poisons, and articles about the Seventeenth Century Judiciary, or articles about the poison Giulia Tofana invented, Aqua Tofana. Everyone has theories about what the poison was made of, but no-one has absolute proof. The prime suspect is a combination of arsenic and a crushed herb which is a type of toadflax.

The sources that are available for Giulia Tofana are all secondary, but most are available as on the internet and many written years after her death. From my research it is apparent that there are records for the deaths of Theofania di Adamo in 1633 (probably her mother) and Girolama Spara (her daughter) in 1659, and that they were both executed for their part in the poisonings. Girolama I renamed with the nickname Mia, to avoid confusion between mother and daughter.

Giulia Tofana, although by far the best known of this trio of women is herself a shadow in the background of this story, which is why I chose her as the subject of my book. Here is the diary of Giacinto Gigli on JStor which I found very useful. It makes reference to Giulia Tofana and I used it again especially for the second in this series, The Silkworm Keeper when Giulia goes to Rome. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w76twr.6?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Recently, material has come out of the Vatican archives giving details of Girolama’s trial, and this will be useful when I come to writing the final book in the series.

BACKGROUND RESEARCH

The Italians’ reputation as keen poisoners can be traced back as far as the Borgias. I read anything I could find on the Borgias and their ‘cantarella’ or poison. According to the Encyclopaedia of Toxicology this was a mixture of copper, arsenic, and phosphorus, prepared in the decaying carcass of a hog. I also researched antidotes which sounded equally outlandish, Venice Treacle for example contained rotting viper’s flesh, and the use of Bezoar stones which were imported from the East and were stones from the stomach of a yak.

Apart from this, my main concern was to paint a portrait of a realistic woman who existed in her milieu, and for that I needed mostly books. When researching I always invest in books I might need. One particularly useful book about women of this period is Women in Italy – 1350 -1650 Ideals and Realities by Mary Rogers and Paola Tinagli. For example, one woman’s advice to another woman in a letter:

“If your husband beats you or torments you and keeps bad company, you should blame your bad behaviour, your excessive loquacity and extreme obstinacy, which would be enough to make you unpleasant even in hell.”

The ‘friend’ certainly pulls no punches! But the real extracts from letters give a fantastic insight into the mind-set of the age, and many insights into how repressive the society for women was, and why the cult of poisoning was so strong.

For this particular book, The Cameo Keeper, I used online guided tours of The Vatican and Rome. Sometimes video views of Italian works of art with a good guide can be more informative than a real tour where you are wrestling with crowds and the heat.

The Cameo Keeper is mostly focussed on the story of Mia Caiozzi, (real life name Girolama) Giulia Tofana’s stepdaughter. Not much is known about the family during this period, so I used research related to the characters that lived at the time, and where their lives might have intersected. For example, Giulia’s herbalism business and the push in Rome at the time to improve the health of its courtesans.

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