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.

I’m happy to say you will find Page 99 of The Garden of Evil there, with my comments right now, and listed on the Campaign for the American Reader web site. Thanks to everyone associated with them for this opportunity.

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.

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 main suspect’s identity is known, but he remains untouchable – protected in his grand palazzo by a fleet of lawyers and a sinister cult known as the Ekstasists.

If Costa and his team can crack the reasons for the cult’s existence, he may well stand a chance of nailing the murderer. But the mystery will take him right back to Caravaggio himself and the reasons the artist had to flee Rome and a sentence of death four centuries before….

Available in the UK from Pan Macmillan now and in the US from Bantam Dell in July 2008, where the book has received a coveted starred review from Publishers Weekly.