A Venetian exile

…wonderfully complex and finely paced… newcomers as well as series fans will be enthralled. Publishers Weekly, starred review

This is another great novel by a fine author. Toronto Globe and Mail

David Hewson may well be the finest mystery writer of our time. Bookreporter

…told with dashing style, in atmospheric set pieces that capture the theatrical grandeur of Venice and the pockets of miserable squalor behind its splendid facade. New York Times

In a dilapidated glass furnace off the island of Murano the fire races out of control. Two people are dead, and for Leo Falcone, exiled to Venice, with Nic Costa and Gianni Peroni, the question is whether he’s dealing with one murderer or two.

For Costa, life in Venice is more perplexing on other fronts too. His relationship with Emily Deacon is deepening, and she is missing the law enforcement work she’s abandoned for a different, quieter career. Slowly, the sluggish world of the lagoon begins to enfold the Romans in its sinister grip, as they try to untangle the complex family ties of the tragic Arcangeli family on a private island falling into ruin.

The Lizard’s Bite is in part a companion piece to the earlier standalone novel, Lucifer’s Shadow, bringing several characters from that story into the tale of murder, betrayal and deceit which Costa and his colleagues must unpick in the heady, close heights of the Venetian summer.

The Venetian police turn to the Romans to wrap it up quickly and cleanly, in time for the English tycoon, Hugo Massiter, to complete his purchase of the island. To Falcone, this seems a small matter, a domestic murder of little more than intellectual interest. But as the summer heat takes hold, and the Romans’ investigations begin to grate with a local force more interested in tidy solutions than awkward questions, the island’s spell begins to cast a wider net.

Reviews of The Lizard’s Bite

Publishers Weekly, October 2006, starred review
British author Hewson’s wonderfully complex and finely paced fourth crime novel (after 2005’s The Sacred Cut) to feature Roman detective Nic Costa and his unconventional partner, Gianni Peroni, finds the pair exiled to Venice, where they look into the case of glassmaker Uriel Arcangelo, who apparently killed his wife, [...]

A return to the city in the sea

I went back to Venice to write The Lizard’s Bite six years or so after writing Lucifer’s Shadow. Many of the locations are the same, so you may want to look at the larger picture gallery there. Why did I choose to go back? A few reasons. Firstly, I wanted to see what my characters [...]