Dante’s Numbers

Then tragedy strikes out of the blue, and the starry affair ends in violence and confusion… and the loss of the death mask of Dante Alighieri that Costa’s team were supposed to guard.

Amid the recriminations the cinema circus moves on to an American premiere in San Francisco. Outraged that the Carabinieri have stolen the principal investigation, Leo Falcone manages to take his team across the Atlantic too for the first time. There they find themselves in a world both familiar and strange. Is the movie dogged by fanatics outraged that the original work has been ruined by the movie? Are disgruntled backers behind the continuing attacks on the famous cast?

Or is something darker and more disturbing happening, something that only Teresa Lupo can see? A link with another cultural icon, Hitchcock’s famous movie Vertigo, made in San Francisco fifty years before?

The first review of the book has appeared in Dutch, through the Nu news organisation, written by the well-known Dutch reviewer Anne Jongeling. It concludes…

It remains a wonder how Hewson consistently links interesting art history, architecture and culture to interweave them with crime and psychological tension. In this seventh book, in which Dante’s complex heritage serves as a guiding principle serves for a thriller, it is clear that Hewson is one of the greatest writers in this genre at this moment. Tremendous work. Five stars.

The work has received the praise of some of the world’s top authors. 

Jeffery Deaver writes…

The return of Nic Costa is a  true cause for  celebration! Dante’s Numbers is a literate,  page-turning tale that finds our  hero–one of the most appealing in  crime fiction — zipping between two of the  most iconic cities in the  world: Rome and San Francisco. Hewson is a daunting talent — a writer  who is master stylist, who respects the audience’s  intelligence and  who effortlessly keeps the thrills coming a mile a minute.

Douglas Preston, author of The Monster of Florence and Blasphemy, and a onetime Italy resident adds…

One of my all-time favorite fictional detectives is David Hewson’s Nic Costa, and Dante’s Numbers brings Nic for the first time to American shores. From the opening scene of murder and mayhem at a movie premiere to the final, mind-blowing surprise, Dante’s Numbers is an elegant, clever, and terrifying tale of intrigue and murder involving Dante’s first circle of Hell and Hitchcock’s classic film Vertigo. An outstanding novel.

Steve Berry, best-selling author of The Venetian Betrayal, says…

David Hewson is one of the finest thriller writers working today.  A born stylist.  Dante’s Numbers is politically wise, multi-dimensional, and psychologically intuitive.  Action braids suspense on nearly every page, creating a reader’s delight from beginning to end.  A superb effort by a master storyteller.

And David Morrell, author of First Blood and Creepers, writes…

Dante’s Numbers is action-packed suspense at its smartest and most gripping.  Transplanting Nic Costa and his fellow Italian detectives to the dizzying world of Hitchcock’s Vertigo is a master stroke from a brilliant author. It’s impossible not to be swept up in the memorable, compelling world that is David Hewson’s specialty.

To view the Blip.tv link click on the image or click read more to watch on this site. To see the smaller Youtube version, suitable for slower connections, please click here.

The sixth Nic Costa novel, The Garden of Evil, is winning rave responses from the critics, including coveted starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, the magazine of the American Library Association. PW describes the work as ‘this dark jewel of a thriller’. Booklist’s Bill Ott declares, ‘Arturo Pérez-Reverte has long set the gold standard for mixing history, mystery, and modern life into literary stews of mouthwatering flavor and incredible subtlety, but it’s time to agree that Hewson now shares that position—and is on the verge of claiming it outright.’

In a deserted artist’s studio in the heart of Rome, detectives stumble upon a scene of shocking brutality: two bodies, freshly killed. Looming over them is a painting that bears all the hallmarks of a Caravaggio: a brilliantly colored canvas depicting a violent tableau of beauty and depravity. This grisly discovery sends Nic Costa on a desperate chase through the streets of his city. The consequences are devastating. And for Nic, the case has only just begun.

At the crime scene, detectives find a treasure trove of evidence—from fresh blood to lurid photos of dead prostitutes. For Costa, finding the killer who escaped him is intensely personal. But his prime suspect arrogantly hides in plain sight behind a fortress of money, power, and the law.

Teaming with an art expert, Costa follows clues hidden in the mysterious Caravaggio canvas. As he moves through a maze of history, he begins to make stunning connections to the present case. And each discovery brings him closer and closer to a secret buried in a priceless work of art, a conspiracy dating back four hundred years—and men who will stop at nothing to protect their own private garden of evil.

The Daily Express described the book as ‘even more gripping that its predecessors’. Margaret Cannon, in the Toronto Globe & Mail, says the series is one of her favourites, and adds, ‘The Garden of Evil is the best book so far in the Costa series, and that’s saying a lot. But Hewson takes his plotting here a giant step further than in the usual cop/chase story.’

It was Book of the Month in this month’s Choice Magazine which said: ‘David Hewson is on top form with this novel, taking his readers on a gripping journey through the streets of the Eternal City’. Crimesquad, which makes David author of the month, gives the book a five-star review and says, ‘This is a heady concoction of classic crime novel elements, perceptive characterisation and illuminating historical detail, all set in exotic locations and brilliantly told by a master storyteller.’

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

At the outset of this dark jewel of a thriller, Hewson’s sixth to feature Roman detective Nic Costa (after The Seventh Sacrament), Costa and his team are just starting to process a crime scene in an artist’s shabby studio, where two corpses lie sprawled before a painting of a rapturous female nude redolent of Caravaggio, when they flush out a hooded gunman. The gunman escapes in the ensuing chase… While Costa is taken off the case, his rule-bending boss finds a way for him to help on the sly, assisting the unusual art expert—young Sister Agata Graziano—called in to investigate whether the canvas could really be a Caravaggio and what light it might shed on the murders. You don’t have to be much of a sleuth to foresee danger for Sister Agata, but that’s about the only predictable element in a plot otherwise as serpentine—and suspense filled—as the ancient Roman byways through which Costa stalks his prey.

Bill Ott of Booklist, the magazine of the American Library Association (starred review)

Hewson’s latest Nic Costa thriller opens with a shocker that will have series fans reeling, just as it does the principal players: Rome police detectives Costa and Gianni Peroni and their boss, the brooding Leo Falcone. What follows is another gritty, compelling mix of mean streets and ancient history, as the detectives attempt to unravel an appalling series of murders that seems to connect to an unknown Caravaggio painting depicting a tableau of startling depravity.

With the help of lay sister and Caravaggio expert Agata Graziano, the detectives quickly determine that a group of wealthy Roman aristocrats, impervious to the law, are re-creating the violent, orgiastic lifestyle enjoyed centuries earlier by Caravaggio and his circle, who called themselves the “Ekstasists”—and if a few prostitutes die in support of the hedonists’ revels, what of it? As usual, Hewson mixes art history and contemporary crime perfectly, but this time he digs deeper, finding connections between art and life that go to the very heart of humanity’s conflicted cravings for the sensual and the spiritual. And emerging from the complex, masterful plot, its sinews intertwined between past and present, is the towering, tragic figure of Caravaggio, whose still-unsolved murder in Rome in 1606 holds the key to bringing the modern-day Ekstasists to justice.

Arturo Pérez-Reverte has long set the gold standard for mixing history, mystery, and modern life into literary stews of mouthwatering flavor and incredible subtlety, but it’s time to agree that Hewson now shares that position—and is on the verge of claiming it outright.

BookBrowse’s Kim Kovacs writes…

I have a rule: I won’t call a book a page-turner unless reading it causes me to miss my bus stop. Engrossed in David Hewson’s latest mystery, The Garden of Evil, I missed my stop not once but twice – and that was before I was halfway through the novel. This one’s a page-turner all right! It’s also a top-notch, high-quality detective procedural that will appeal to readers who enjoy a literary mystery.

Setting his novel entirely in Rome, Hewson does a wonderful job of recreating the city for his readers, allowing its atmosphere to permeate the book. His readers not only “see” the city with their imagination, they “feel” the cold stones of its streets and buildings and experience the claustrophobia of its alleys as the detectives pursue their suspect.

Authors with the ability to create such vivid descriptions of time and place sometimes fall short when it comes to writing action sequences. Such is not the case with Hewson who delivers action that is both riveting and cinematic. What truly draws the reader, though, are the sections of the novel that concentrate on revelation – revelation of clues to solving the crime as well as the illumination of the principals’ characters.

In the Richmond Times-Dispatch Jay Strafford writes…

When art imitates life, the result can be powerful. And when it takes inspiration from death, it’s at once mesmerizing and terrifying.

Such is the case with David Hewson’s The Garden of Evil (480 pages, Delacorte, $24), the sixth book in the British author’s series featuring Nic Costa, a police detective in Rome, and his colleagues.

Hewson draws his characters well; each book continues their growth and the reader’s affection for them. In The Garden of Evil, a new character, Agata Graziano, a sister in a convent and an art expert, particularly engages the imagination. And Hewson’s imagery is striking — a police car’s “blue light flashed down the alley, like some mutant Christmas decoration newly escaped from the tree.”

A thought-provoking blend of art history and mystery, The Garden of Evil is primarily a novel about sin — original sin, as well as old sins made new. A chilling tale rendered in evocative prose, it’s Hewson’s latest triumph — and a treat for readers who like their entertainment literate.

Margaret Cannon, in the Toronto Globe & Mail…

The Nic Costa series, set in Rome, is one of my favourites. Hewson sets his stories so firmly in place that it’s possible to go from street to piazza to alley, and almost feel the stones of the walks or touch the ancient Roman bricks. The Garden of Evil is the best book so far in the Costa series, and that’s saying a lot. But Hewson takes his plotting here a giant step further than in the usual cop/chase story.

Peter Burton in the Daily Express

The Garden of Evil is the sixth in the Costa series and is even more gripping than its predecessors. Hewson is a cunning storyteller… What follows is a deadly cat-and-mouse game during which the body count steadily rises and Roman history once again proves to be a vital component in the case. The Garden of Evil is impossible to put down.

In Mystery News Harriet Stay writes…

I have loved all of Hewson’s thrillers or suspence procedurals and this was no exception. It sizzles with grisly murders, well-drawn characters you care about (there were times I wanted to scream or cry), dialogue to envy and all in all a story not to forget.

At Bookreporter Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum writes…

The Garden of Evil is one of the best literary police procedurals written this season. The breadth and intense accuracy of David Hewson’s research is the palette he uses for the landscape against which (the book) is juxtaposed. With the stroke of his pen, he transports readers to times and places buried in eons of history while seamlessly bringing them back to the present. In each of his books his protagonist, Nic Costa, has slowly shed his picaresque role and is now a man with a real sense of self. No longer the naïve beat cop, he has earned his stripes as a detective, which adds verisimilitude to the way he ferrets out the clues that he needs to solve the murders in this labyrinthine drama.

Those who are already fans will not want to miss The Garden of Evil. And new readers will find themselves enchanted by Hewson’s storytelling abilities.

Jenni Morton of the StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, writes…

This is a fascinating story of Roman past and present, of artists and the nobles who support them, of aristocratic arrogance that thwarts the police. Front and centre are the great painter Caravaggio, whose talent led him into deadly company, and the modern sister (not nun, she emphasizes) who has made his work her work.

Though I have come late to Nic Costa, I am hurrying to read his earlier adventures in the city that is his world.

Mike Ripley, in a review at Shots Magazine, writes…

Modern Italy has long been a popular location for crime novels written by non-Italians. I remember with great pleasure Reginald Hill’s Another Death In Venice from 1976 and the late Michael Dibdin, in his pre-Aurelio Zen days, cut his teeth with A Rich Full Death ten years later before going on to dominate the field. Many others have dipped a fork into the pasta sauce of Italian crime: the late Sarah Caudwell, the late Magdalen Nabb and, I hear you scream, Donna Leon. For my money, though, the best practitioner of this “outsider’s” art is Yorkshireman David Hewson who has been clocking up the plaudits with his series set in Rome featuring the cop duo Costa and Peroni. His new title is The Garden of Evil… and I have been privileged to read an advance copy and very good is it too.

I Love A Mystery’s Bob Walch says…

Weaving history, art and the sights and sounds of modern Italy together with a cast of personable characters whose personal lives are as integral a part of the storyline as their professional expertise, David Hewson’s work demands our attention. The emotional depth of his characterization along with Hewson’s stylish, multifaceted storytelling ability have set him apart from the rest of the pack.

If you are looking for a highly entertaining novel that features razor-edge action, intelligent plotting, and an emotional punch, you’ll be delighted to discover THE GARDEN OF EVIL is a very satisfying read. 

Bolton News

A real twister of a tale, this is the sixth novel in Hewson’s atmospheric and addictive series.

Choice magazine

David Hewson is on top form with this novel, taking his readers on a gripping journey through the streets of the Eternal City

The Citizen, South Africa….

A dark tale of murder, Renaissance-era art and secret cults set in the backstreets of modern-day Rome, this is an engrossing read. Rome is thoroughly explored, and it would be useful to be familiar with the city to have a better feel for the locations described. It’s very well written, not too descriptive and not too vague.
Hewson delivers his message clearly and with elegance. Exploration of Rome’s art history adds a fascinating sidetrack and a little more scholarly depth to what would otherwise be a straight-forward crime novel.

Harriet Klausner, one of America’s most prolific reviewers, says…

Filled with incredible but plausible twists, this is a strong Italian police procedural that will have the audience reading it in one suspense laden sitting. The story line is fast-paced as Costa works the streets of Rome seeking a killer who affirms death imitates art. David Hewson is at his best with this superb Roman thriller.

It’s easy enough to track them through the site’s Google maps feature. Some of the books now have their own map pages which will show you the real-life locations in the books, from the talking statues of The Garden of Evil to the underground sites used in The Seventh Sacrament.

You can access the map for The Garden of Evil here. And for The Seventh Sacrament here. Look out for a new map detailing the locations for Dante’s Numbers shortly.

The sixth Nic Costa book is now the subject of a twelve minute video at Blip TV. Just click on the link below to watch it now. A shorter version is also available on Youtube.

Saul Reichlin

The fifth Nic Costa novel, The Seventh Sacrament, has won the new Audible Sounds of Crime prize for the unabridged crime audiobook of the year. The award, which was based on votes from readers, was announced at the Bristol CrimeFest conference at the weekend.

I’m really honoured and flattered to get such a plaudit for the work, and delighted too that I quite rightly share it with Saul Reichlin, right, the series narrator, whose astonishing performance of the books is surely one of the main reasons for their popularity in audio.

Saul does an astonishing job, as many readers tell me by email. And thanks, too, to the hard-working people at WF Howes, my audio publisher, who perform the magical process of transforming a book into the living, breathing, talking medium of an audio work. I’m very grateful for the wonderful job you do.

You can get my audio books in a variety of forms from Howes’ own audio store, Whole Story Audio, and by download from Audible who sponsored the award. Coming after the amazing success of The Chopin Manuscript in winning the top audiobook of the year award - I was lucky enough to be one of the fifteen writers - this is a great compliment, and really brings home to this writer how important audio is becoming in the publishing world.

You can also get most of the books on download too from Audible. For Audible UK go here. For Audible US go here. Please note that all of these books are unabridged - full versions of the original story, not shortened abridged versions.

You can also find some books which are out of print in the UK available in audio now too, including my first book Semana Santa and my first Italian novel, Lucifer’s Shadow.

Stefano’s left arm, the one holding the weapon, swept the table, swept everything on it, the precious volume of Apicius, her expensive notebook computer, down to the hard marble floor with a clatter. He said in a loud voice that was half crazy, half dead, ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.’

As the media gathers and Vatican officials close ranks, a young detective is sent to the forefront of the case. Nic Costa is the son of an infamous Italian Communist, a connoisseur of Caravaggio, and a cop who barely looks his 27 years of age. Thrust into the heart of a killing spree that will rattle his city down to its ancient bones, Nic begins to see a pattern in the killings that follow, murders that seem to mimic the grisly martyrdoms of the early Church.

Racked by personal anxiety over his dying father, Costa starts on the long journey to uncover the truth about these horrific crimes, whatever the cost, whatever the pain. From the inner quarters of the Vatican, desperate to hide a financial embarrassment, to the poorer, squalid bed-sits where the city’s immigrants try to eke out a living, Costa takes on any who crosses his path, however influential, however damaging the cost to his career.

Shunned as the son of a Communist, treated with suspicion by many of those around him, Costa relies on his own intelligence and integrity to find a way into the life of the mysterious Sara Farnese, and unlock the key to the case. But it’s a journey that comes with a terrible risk, and a cost he can never foresee.

…breathtaking… a dark delight, a story that one is compelled to read at one sitting while simultaneously wishing it will never end.’ Bookreporter

Outsized, eccentric characters, a complex story and an abundance of historical detail make this engrossing book more than just another cookie-cutter, religious-nut serial killer thriller. Publishers Weekly

Let me tell you, this is great stuff… Praise be! Washington Post

David Hewson… is one of several crime writers opting for an Italian setting these days. On this form, Hewson is certainly the leader of the pack. Birmingham Post

BookReporter.Com
‘…breathtaking… a dark delight, a story that one is compelled to read at one sitting while simultaneously wishing it will never end.’

Publisher’s Weekly

Outsized, eccentric characters, a complex story and an abundance of historical detail make this engrossing book more than just another cookie-cutter, religious-nut serial killer thriller.

Washington Post

A Season for the Dead, like The Da Vinci Code, is a thriller that takes an unflattering look at the Catholic Church, but it is better written and more sophisticated than Dan Brown’s phenomenal bestseller… The books differ, too, in that Hewson, far more than Brown or most thriller writers, has a serious concern for character.

Hewson gives us lyrical moments (during a storm, “the city looked like the bowl of some fantastic fountain designed by a drunken Bernini”) and bizarre moments, as when the killer, in clerical robes, awaiting a victim, listens on headphones to Cannonball Adderley’s great recording of “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” the point being that he has none. Amid revelations of police corruption, unexpected parentage, incest and betrayal, Hewson concocts a climactic scene in a little church called San Luigi dei Francesi…

Lit by candles, Caravaggio’s painting of the martyrdom of Saint Matthew gazes down from the wall (”the naked madman murdering the prone Matthew on the ground, sword raised, ready to deliver the final blow”). One crazed character “stumbled forward, colliding with terrified bodies in the darkness, yelling every obscenity he could think of, screaming his father’s name, begging the black maw of the nave to give up his body for vengeance.”

Let me tell you, this is great stuff. A Season for the Dead, if sometimes blissfully over the top, is intelligent entertainment… Praise be!

Dallas Morning News

Mr Hewson’s suspenseful, fascinating mystery has an appealing detective and many complex characters on both sides of the law. Twisting and turning through Italian history and art, Nic Costa’s first case gives the serial murder mystery a new look.
Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tennessee

This enthralling story has it all: believable heroes, villains and even minor characters, exotic setting, history, religion, gruesome violence and steamy sex. Best of all, it’s so seamlessly put together that time flies as you flip pages to get to the end. Atmospheric and captivating, Hewson’s novel has all the elements needed for the complete thriller-reading experience. This is one not to miss.
Rocky Mountain News

There will be inevitable comparisons between this novel and The Da Vinci Code because of the Italian setting, the Vatican connection and the Caravaggio association. But A Season for the Dead does not expose artistic or religious frauds nor attempt to rewrite history. This is, instead, a complicated and engrossing mystery so compelling that it begs for a one-night reading.

The good news is that this is only the first novel to star Nic Costa. Hewson said in a recent interview that he created Costa as “a good guy, an unfinished, slightly naive, innocent person … a character who was in transition.” In a proposed six-book series, he will follow the policeman and his cohorts through other adventures as they attempt not only to solve crimes but deal honestly with a society that is not always honest itself.”Most of my books aren’t whodunits; they’re more whydunits,” Hewson explained. And that is just what makes them so fascinating.

Star Tribune, Minneapolis

This atmospheric thriller begins in the Vatican library and winds around the ancient streets and churches of Rome. Detective Nic Costa is working on a series of gruesome murders that mimics the martyrdom of early Christian saints - and seems to revolve around the mysteriuos Sara Farnese, a professor of Early Christian history. Costa finds himself drawn to her cool beauty as well. Hewson’s absorbing series debut features a memorable cast of fully human characters, imagines the distorted mind of a serial killer and takes a chilling glimpse into the Vatican’s less-than-godly dealings with the secular world.

Library Journal
It’s a suspenseful thriller, cleverly plotted with great characters and a real look at the back streets of Rome and the darker streets of the Vatican. Oklahaman‘… a delicious and compelling view of the public art of Rome and the private intrigue of the Vatican. Recommended for most popular fiction collections; blooming Costa fans will be pleased to know that Hewson plans a series of novels featuring the detective.

Mystery Lovers.Com
A fast-paced tour of Rome with a nice combo of serial killer thriller and Vatican conspiracy novel.

Deadly Pleasures
What makes Hewson worth reading is not only the well-realized setting, but also, to Americans, the exotic European characters, especially the two Italian cops. The action is well paced, the plot nicely twisted, the characters often chameleon-like, and the setting is definitely fascinating for many readers. Overall, this is a well written mystery with some real surprises at the end.

Birmingham Post
David Hewson… has written mysteries set abroad before now, especially Spain, and is one of several crime writers opting for an Italian setting these days. On this form, Hewson is certainly the leader of the pack.

Publishing News
The first in a promising Italian crime series set in Rome … Hewson’s way with the Roman milieu is as cutting edge as his adroit narrative.

Sunday Mercury
An oddball detective mistrusted by his bosses, a beautiful woman, the elegant backdrop of Rome and sinister goings-on in the Vatican all add up to a new spin on the serial killer tale…All of this works not simply because of the frenetic plot but because Hewson has two beguiling, fascinating characters to hold our interest… (he) has a lightness of touch, an eye for the macabre and an understanding that you can’t beat the old fatal attraction between an all-too-human cop and a beautiful woman.

The Good Book Guide
Hewson weaves a complex plot with confidence, embracing weighty themes such as bereavement and redemption. (He) skilfully reveals information over the course of the novel, involving us in a host of surprises and twists. His characters have real staying power. Even the lesser characters are ornately detailed. Interwoven with the manhunt and gore are interludes of compassion and forgiveness. The loving relationship between Costa and his father shows how humane Hewson’s writing can be, and it is this humanity that distinguishes Hewson from more formulaic crime writers. By the time we reach the stylish conclusion we’re already impatient to read the next in the series.

Cape Times
A Season for the Dead is one of the most unusual thrillers I have read in ages. History and travel fans will embrace this book, but it doesn’t let lovers of suspense and political intrigue down either.

David Hewson really knows his subject. His descriptions of Rome in August are so real you can see St Peter’s Square shimmering in the heat, and the narrow, winding lanes of the old city bring history to life. It may be too gritty a depiction of the underbelly of humanity to suit some sensitive souls, but I’m very keen to read his next novel.

Bookshelf, SAfm
… unusual and gripping. Hewson has quite a sure feel for the structure of his story and… matters that are arguably far deeper than most detective thriller writers expect from their readers.

He definitely seems keen on exploring the notion that not one of us is entirely removed from the evil in the world, and he uses the thriller genre-the archetypal ‘good guys versus bad guys’ genre-to look at that notion.Cleverly, Hewson also encourages us to ponder mortality, age, judgement and things temporal vis-à-vis things eternal. Rome is, after all, the eternal city. But it’s not a pretentious or arty-farty book… a refreshingly unusual piece of writing. I certainly stayed up till all hours enjoying a really original author. I look forward to his next book.

Crimetime
Hewson writes well, and the Rome he describes is a venous and breathing city-if not the one you recognise as a tourist. By a quarter way through the book you realise there is more to these grisly episodes than the solitary amusement of a madman. The Mafia and the Vatican are bedfellows, the female love interest seems a cold-hearted whore, and absolutely nobody can be trusted. An initially simple story becomes increasingly dark and matted - perhaps too complex to be believed, yet when one looks back, the whole astonishing conspiracy hangs together. Unless you’re a Catholic who believes the Vatican can do no wrong, immerse yourself in this.

The Villa of Mysteries appropriates the beauty and savagery of classical Rome and sets it off against the corruption and sleaze of the present day.

Teresa Lupo, a maverick pathologist, thinks she has the victim of an ancient pagan ritual on her hands. Inspector Leo Falcone, however, kno ws this case is recent history and one that desperately needs a solution. So begins an investigation that will take the police deep into the dark underworld of Rome’s most disturbing and sinister secrets.

Emilio Neri, the local mafia boss, seems to be one of the keys to the mystery, and he can’t even trust his own wayward son. Retired US mobster Vergil Wallis is another key player who’s reluctant to talk. Meanwhile, someone is trying very hard to kill the pathologist. And now another beautiful young woman has gone missing in familiar circumstances.

The second book in any series is always important. It needs to lay the foundations for the stories, and the characters, that follow. Unlike A Season for the Dead, this book shifts the viewpoint from beyond Nic Costa alone, to those around him, men and women with more years in law enforcement, more than a touch of cynicism in some cases… and a habit of catching their breath when Costa, bright, young, incorruptible, comes on the case.

This is a terrific novel by a fine emerging British talent. Toronto Globe and Mail

A complex and satisfying mystery from a master plot maker. Booklist

…imagine the deceptively relaxed atmosphere of Donna Leon’s Brunetti novels mixed with the darkness of Ian Rankin’s Rebus sequence. Excellent. Ink

A riveting tale of revenge brought to life by sharp characterisation and powerful dynamics. The Good Book Guide

A superb mix of history, mystery and humanity. Booklist

This is definitely among this spring’s must-read crime fictions. Calgary Herald

If you are one of those individuals who believe there are very few writers left who can make you sit up and applaud, be forewarned. You’ll be putting your hands together in appreciation of David Hewson! Bob Walch, I Love A Mystery

David Hewson has a superb sense of pace and place, his characters feel real, and he writes a page-turner detective story like no other. Choice

…a sophisticated and original thriller that cements David Hewson’s burgeoning reputation as one of crime writing’s most exciting talents. Mystery and Thriller Magazine

It begins on one of Rome’s least-known hills, the Aventino, in the public piazza fronting the mansion of the Knights of Malta. There a curious keyhole to the knights’ estate reveals an astonishing view, a direct line across the Tiber to the dome of St. Peters in the distance.

For seven-year-old Alessio Bramante the act of peeking through the keyhole on his way to school each day is a ritual, a way of establishing a bond with his difficult, distant father, one of Rome’s most famous archaeologists, Giorgio Bramante. Then one day, after an unexpected visit to one of Giorgio’s underground excavations, Alessio disappears. A group of students who had slipped into the site, an ancient Mithraic temple, attract the blame. A tragedy occurs. Alessio is never found, and it’s his father who goes to jail.

Fourteen years later, in an arcane shrine by the Tiber known as the Little Museum of Purgatory, a tee-shirt belonging to Bramante’s son begins to show fresh bloodstains. No one can understand how the marks have appeared behind the glass.

Soon it becomes apparent that the newly-released Giorgio Bramante is bent upon a vicious and terrifying revenge on all those he blames for the loss of his son, and numbers Inspector Leo Falcone, a member of the original investigating team, among his targets. In the depths of the labyrinth he knows better than any man, a distraught father seeks his vengeance against those he hates.

Nic Costa, watching Falcone move relentlessly into the man’s deadly grip, realises the answer to the deadly present must lie in solving a cold case that, like the forgotten Alessio Bramante, has long been regarded as dead and buried for good.