Currently Reading - Blood of Dreams, Susan Parisi

I've just picked up this first book from Canadian born / Australian residing first-time author - Susan Parisi.  The first paragraph:

"I follow her as she moves along the Fondamente delle Tette.  A young woman dressed as a man.  Anxiously, she glances over her shoulder, not for fear of discovery but because she is lost.  I see, as she turns, a profusion of frills cascading down the front of her waistcoat and her face is thick with powder.  I also see that, unaccustomed to a life lived among the waters of the lagoon, she has failed to notice the gondola gliding silently behind her."