The Garden of Evil 
Caravaggio revisited: The Garden of Evil(0)
The picture contained a frightful beauty, one which burned so brightly that, once witnessed, could never be unseen… No one could take their eyes off the painting. Even the presence of two corpses, one clearly murdered, the other dead in strange and suspicious circumstances, did nothing to distract their attention from the canvas at that moment…
In a hidden studio in an ancient area of Rome where the Vatican liked to keep an eye on the city’s prostitutes, an art expert from the Louvre is found dead in front of one of the most beautiful paintings that Nic Costa has ever seen – an unknown Caravaggio masterpiece. But before long tragedy will strike far closer to home.
The new Costa novel is hailed as ‘the best yet’
The sixth Nic Costa novel, The Garden of Evil, is winning a rave reception 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 declares, ‘When it comes to making a literary stew—mixing history, mystery, and modern life—there’s no one better than Hewson.‘
The Garden of Evil gallery
I deliberately decided to focus the entire story of The Garden of Evil in a very small area, part of Rome north of the Pantheon which, in Caravaggio’s time was known as ‘Ortaccio’, an area of rough bars, brothels, and home to many criminals and artists too, the painter included. This gives you a flavour of a part of the city which is still wonderfully chaotic and a little run-down in places today. You can also see some of the talking statues featured in the book, which were used to communicate messages during the censored times of the Popes. To find out more about them go here.
A map of Ortaccio
Explore some of the locations of The Garden of Evil through an annotated Google map of Rome, complete with photographs taken during the writing of the book.