57 pages • 1-hour read
The Amalfi Curse
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Chapters 8-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “Haven, Monday”
The CEO of HPI, Gage, calls Haven, tells her that eight people died on the yacht, and informs her that Conrad has decided to take over Project Relic. Gage says, “I can’t pay to put a group of women in the water, Haven. Should something happen, think how that would look” (87). Haven feels betrayed because Conrad was a close friend of her father and saved her life during a diving accident when she was 16. Three of the five women on Haven’s team have left other jobs for the project, but Gage only offers to let Haven keep her stipend. She rejects his offer and hangs up on him. Haven wonders if Conrad’s sudden change of plans has something to do with the gems, and she tells Mal about Gage’s decision and her father’s discovery. Mal is suspicious of Conrad’s motives because the wealthy man doesn’t report his discoveries to the authorities. The dive marshal reminds her friend of the dangers of proceeding without a full team, but Haven refuses to abandon her father’s dream.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Mari, Monday, April 16, 1821”
The narrative moves into the past. As Mari rows to shore, the sea senses her fury and sends a rogue wave to batter the dock. After bringing Pippa home, she informs Lia’s parents, Ami and Dante, that Matteo abducted their child. Dante immediately takes his pistol and rides off in pursuit of the merchant. Mari confesses to Ami that Matteo knows about the sea witches’ power, and she promises that she will offer herself in Lia’s stead when the man returns to Positano: “I will die trying if I must. But I will find her, and I will bring her home” (103).
Chapter 10 Summary: “Holmes, Friday, April 20, 1821, 9:15 a.m., Port of Terracina”
The narrative shifts to Holmes’s perspective. Several sailors report missing items, such as alcohol and sweets. Quinto, the Aquila’s first mate, announces that the ship will sail for Positano ahead of schedule on “some urgent errand on behalf of the Mazza brothers” (104). Holmes plans to send a letter announcing his arrival to Mari while he’s in Naples, but he might arrive before his message. Although he looks forward to seeing her, he has a sense of foreboding.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Mari, Friday, April 20, 1821”
The story moves to Mari’s perspective. The villagers are all armed and vigilant in case Matteo returns, but the sea witches don’t reveal why Lia was abducted. Four days have passed since Dante left in pursuit of Matteo, and he has yet to return. That night, Mari sees a ship with cannons drawn anchored offshore. Fearing that the ship belongs to Matteo, Mari, Cleila, Paola, and Pippa’s parents hurry towards the vessel. Matteo’s men kill Pippa’s father, Leo, and seize her mother, Vivi.
As Mari, Cleila, and Paola stealthily make their way towards the shore, Paola twists her ankle and is unable to stand without crying out in pain. Mari sends her stepmother and stepsister back to the villa and tries to rescue Vivi alone, but Matteo captures her. His men seize Pippa and two teenagers who aren’t witches. When he declares that he intends to abduct every woman in the village, Mari tells him that only a few adult women possess magic and threatens to unleash her power unless he frees Pippa. Matteo complies, and he and his men row Mari and Vivi to the ship.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Haven, Tuesday”
The narrative moves forward to Haven’s present. Now that Conrad has commandeered Project Relic, Haven needs to secure her gear elsewhere. She goes to Positano Underwater Adventures. The shop’s owner is a handsome man named Enzo Rossi, and he agrees to let Haven rent his dive boat when it’s not in use for group scuba tours. Although Haven doesn’t usually flirt with strangers, she notices Enzo checking her left hand for a wedding ring and flirts back. They schedule their first dive together for that afternoon.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Mari, Friday, April 20, 1821”
The narrative moves back in time. Matteo’s crew brings Mari and Vivi aboard the Lupo. Although Mari’s hands are bound, she manages to leap overboard, free herself, and swim to shore, evading the gunfire aimed at her. Her cimaruta talisman slips off, but she catches it before it sinks. When Mari reaches the beach, she realizes that even though she hasn’t used any magic that night, the sea has “taken great care of her” by concealing her escape and carrying her towards land (127). The Lupo sails off as she watches, “exhausted and bereft” (127).
Chapter 14 Summary: “Haven, Tuesday”
The narrative moves forward in time. Mal decides to return to her old job but struggles to find a flight out of Italy. She encourages Haven to “find what [her] dad left behind” and “give Conrad the middle finger while [she’s] at it” (129). During Haven and Enzo’s first dive, he asks her if she’s heard of the Amalfi Curse and expresses similar skepticism about the legends. As Enzo steers the boat to the location of Haven’s father’s last dive, Conrad texts Haven. He asks her to meet with him the next day to discuss Project Relic and tells her that her father wouldn’t want her to be in danger. Haven is angry, in part because she isn’t sure whether her father would side with her or Conrad.
Haven and Enzo dive into the cold, foggy waters and hold hands as a precaution due to the low visibility. The exuberant Enzo does a few underwater somersaults, and Haven follows suit. After 22 minutes, the cold becomes intolerable. They return to the boat and share a thermos of coffee spiked with amaretto. Haven and Enzo decide to go on two dives the next day. She accepts when he asks her out to dinner, even though her previous dates with fellow scuba divers have gone poorly because he seems completely different from the serious, academic individuals she usually dives with. He invites her to visit his mother’s hilltop villa before their date, and she agrees.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Holmes, Sunday, April 22, 1821, Bay of Naples”
The story moves back in time. Unable to sleep, Holmes rereads his diary entries about Mari, including one about the first time that they had sex in her family’s olive grove. Then he goes on deck to smoke a cigarette. He overhears Quinto and the captain saying that Massimo was drowned by a woman with “impossibly red” hair and magical powers and that Matteo is now aboard the Aquila (141). Holmes realizes that the men are talking about Mari. The officers say that they have orders to seize all Positano’s red-haired women and that those who have already been taken captive are on the island of Ischia. Holmes hurries back to his deck and writes a letter to Mari, warning her of the imminent danger. He can’t be certain that the message will reach her in time, so he hatches a plot that will ensure that she has warning of the Aquila’s approach, even though he will face severe punishment if he is discovered.
Chapters 8-15 Analysis
In the second section, Penner’s narrative movements between the 19th century and the modern day add to the tension, raising the stakes of the novel’s two love stories. For example, Chapter 11 ends with a cliffhanger when Matteo kidnaps Mari and takes her aboard his ship, where “her powers—her magic—were as good as dead” (117). The author draws out the suspense by cutting away from Mari in Chapter 12 to focus on Haven. The multiple timelines also allow the author to construct parallels between the two romances. Although Mari is weighed down by grief and responsibilities for much of the novel, the amorous flashbacks between her and Holmes show another side to the protagonist: “Holmes had softened Mari, peeled back the hardened layers of her heart. At times, he even unburied a childlike spirit within her” (108). Similarly, Enzo emerges as Haven’s love interest in this section and helps her rediscover her sense of joy after her father’s death: “Enzo’s energy and playfulness were refreshing” (134). As the novel unfolds, each of the two romances has a significant impact on the story’s structure.
The antagonists’ actions in these chapters establish treasure as a motif signifying The Intergenerational Struggle for Women’s Independence. The struggle for freedom is dangerously literal for Mari and her coven, as evidenced by her and Vivi’s capture in Chapter 11. Penner later reveals that Matteo is after the women because he wants to use their magical powers to find sunken loot, introducing issues of exploitation and appropriation. Likewise, Conrad is driven by greed when he betrays Haven. He commandeers Project Relic because he covets the gems her father found in Li Galli. The treasure hunter attempts to justify his actions by claiming that he is trying to protect Haven: “[W]e need to keep you out of harm’s way. Your dad would want that” (133). Conrad’s reasoning denies women’s agency, implying that Haven and her team are unable to make their own decisions or face the same perils as men, even though they are trained divers and nautical archaeologists. This excerpt offers an example of how contemporary misogyny often occurs under the guise of ‘protecting women.’ The motif of treasure highlights the ways men’s greed drives them to reify their wealth and power, a major obstacle in women’s centuries-long struggle for independence.
In this section, the novel’s thematic engagement with The Power of Love and Sacrifice contributes to the story’s tension, advances Mari and Holmes’s character development, and provides foreshadowing. In Chapter 9, Mari vows to save Lia and protect the rest of her coven or “die trying” (103). She also protects Pippa by promising to surrender quietly in exchange for the teenager’s release in Chapter 11. Moments like this establish Mari’s tendency toward sacrificial acts of valor, foreshadowing the novel’s climax, in which Mari prepares to give her life to stop Matteo and protect Positano’s women. Holmes also demonstrates the power of love and sacrifice in Chapter 15, which describes his attempt to protect the sea witches at great personal risk: “He had a very good idea in mind—but it was a dangerous one. If he were caught, Quinto and Matteo would think nothing of flogging him or tying him to the mast. Despite this, his mind was made up” (143). Holmes’s risky plan to ensure that Mari is warned about Matteo foreshadows his efforts to sabotage the Aquila in the next section.
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