David Hewson Books In Order

A Season for the Dead

In a hushed Vatican reading room, the scene was shocking: a crazed professor shot dead after brandishing evidence of a grisly crime. Moments later, two bodies are found in a nearby church, each with a gruesome calling card from the killer. Thus begins David Hewson’s elegant and electrifying new novel. Set amidst a bizarre killing spree in modern Rome, it is a bewitching blend of history and drama, sensuality and suspense. As the August heat takes Rome in its fiery grip, the news of two brutal murders holds the city in thrall. And 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 meets a woman who will soon dominate both his consciousness and his investigation. A cool, beautiful professor of early Christianity, Sara Farnese was in the Vatican library on that fateful day, a witness to her colleague’s strange outburst and death. But her role will become even more puzzling as more bodies are found: Each victim killed in a gory tableau of Christian martyrdom. And each victim had intimately known Sara, whose silence Costa cannot quite crack and whose carnal history becomes more lurid and unfathomable with every revelation. Soon, a nightmarish chase is implicating politicians and priests while at the heart of the matter remains the woman Costa is both investigating and guarding. Wanting to believe in Sara’s innocence, Nic still cannot turn his eyes from the truths he is uncovering. Even as the secrets of a woman, a killer and a city begin to unravel…
with devastating consequences.A beguiling mystery, a dazzling treat for the senses, and a fascinating tour of the streets and alleyways of Rome, Nic Costa’s relentlessly suspenseful debut is a masterpiece of suspense fiction.?

The Villa of Mysteries

In a thriller of astounding menace and power, the acclaimed author of A Season for the Dead returns to the landscape he has made his own the seething landscape of modern day Rome where ancient crimes lie hidden beneath colorful, bustling avenues. Here a teenage girl has disappeared, a detective is exploring a 2000 year old ritual and an astonishing mystery is about to unravel in a city of secrets and rage . In Rome’s crowded Campo dei Fiori, a woman rushes up to two carabinieri lounging in their sunglas*ses and uniforms, insisting that her sixteen year old daughter has just been abducted. Detective Nic Costa sees the scene unfold and intervenes. Because Costa knows what the two officers don t: that in the morgue at Rome s police headquarters, a forensic pathologist is examining the strange, mummified corpse of another girl, whose disappearance and death bear haunting similarities . Police pathologist Teresa Lupo is Nic s colleague, friend, and his only equal when it comes to breaking the rules to get results, whatever the cost. Now, after years of living with the dead, Teresa insists that her superiors move quickly to save a life. Poring over the body of the girl in the morgue, she has found too many similarities between the girls, including a unique, leering tattoo. Lupo is sure that the vanished girl is headed for a bizarre ancient Bacchanalia involving virgins and sacrificial murder a ritual that is only days away. As Nic and Teresa claw at the case from two sides and as Nic finds himself at once puzzled and beguiled by the missing girl s seductive mother a chilling picture is beginning to emerge of secret relationships and sexual depravity, organized crime and unimaginable corruption. With the clock ticking down on a young girl s life, Nic and Teresa are about to make the most horrifying discovery of all in a pit of human darkness, where an age old malevolence still endures, evil has consumed innocence and a very modern vengeance has begun.A spellbinding mix of suspense, forensic science, and human drama, The Villa of Mysteries will catch you off guard at every turn a novel that is at once heartbreaking and impossible to put down.

The Sacred Cut

On an August night on a small island near Venice, a fire explodes in a glassmaking shop. When help arrives, two people are dead, a rich Englishman is implicated, and investigators from Rome are assigned a case no one wants them to solve…
. In this spellbinding new novel featuring Detective Nic Costa, author David Hewson weaves together the rich fabric of Europe’s most beguiling city with a riveting tale of passion, corruption, and the poisonous bite of betrayal.

On their private island, the Arcangelo family defy the world: living in a decaying palazzo, making glass in a terrifying, archaic furnace, watching their absurd exhibition hall sink into disrepair. But now the world is coming to their dying outpost in a crumbling corner of a Venice that tourists never see. Police boats and vaporetti bring investigators, curiosity seekers, and one man who plans to own the property himself. With two family members consumed by the foundry fire, both mystery and opportunity have been bared to the bone.

On special assignment from Rome, Detective Nic Costa, along with his partner, his boss, and a dogged pathologist named Teresa Lupo, is getting in the way of progress, Venetian style. They know that Uriel Arcangelo and his wife were murdered. They know that a predatory Englishman must be a suspect, as is the family of the murdered woman. And while everyone wants the Roman cops to give up and go home, they can t because a matter of desire, death, and lies has just turned murderously on one of them…
.

A tale as bewitching as its lush backdrop, The Lizard s Bite is an astounding alchemy of superb writing, vibrant atmosphere, and sheer, gripping suspense.

The Lizard’s Bite

On an August night on a small island near Venice, a fire explodes in a glassmaking shop. When help arrives, two people are dead, a rich Englishman is implicated, and investigators from Rome are assigned a case no one wants them to solve…
. In this spellbinding new novel featuring Detective Nic Costa, author David Hewson weaves together the rich fabric of Europe’s most beguiling city with a riveting tale of passion, corruption, and the poisonous bite of betrayal.

On their private island, the Arcangelo family defy the world: living in a decaying palazzo, making glass in a terrifying, archaic furnace, watching their absurd exhibition hall sink into disrepair. But now the world is coming to their dying outpost in a crumbling corner of a Venice that tourists never see. Police boats and vaporetti bring investigators, curiosity seekers, and one man who plans to own the property himself. With two family members consumed by the foundry fire, both mystery and opportunity have been bared to the bone.

On special assignment from Rome, Detective Nic Costa, along with his partner, his boss, and a dogged pathologist named Teresa Lupo, is getting in the way of progress, Venetian style. They know that Uriel Arcangelo and his wife were murdered. They know that a predatory Englishman must be a suspect, as is the family of the murdered woman. And while everyone wants the Roman cops to give up and go home, they can t because a matter of desire, death, and lies has just turned murderously on one of them…
.

A tale as bewitching as its lush backdrop, The Lizard s Bite is an astounding alchemy of superb writing, vibrant atmosphere, and sheer, gripping suspense.

The Seventh Sacrament

In the heat of a Rome summer, a seven year old boy vanishes in the dank catacombs beneath the city. Now fourteen years have passed, and in acclaimed author David Hewson’s stunning new crime novel the heart wrenching case has come back to life as Detective Nic Costa and his fellow investigators search through layers of their city s history for a killer leaving a trail of bodies, lust, and revenge. When young Alessio Bramante vanished, there was plenty of blame to go around. His father, a charismatic professor of archaeology, inexplicably left Alessio alone near a labyrinth of ancient tunnels and excavations. Six of the professor s university students, fueled by booze and bravado, involved the boy in their own bizarre ritual at an altar of the ancient warrior god Mithras. And then there were the police: a commanding officer left Giorgio Bramante alone with the prime suspect, allowing Alessio s father to beat the man to death. After years in prison, Giorgio has been set free and, one by one, those connected to the boy s disappearance are dying. As Costa and his fellow detectives scramble to find Giorgio, they are thrust into a darkening web of hidden perversions and secret passions past and present. Because at the heart of this case as close and as far away as Rome s underground treasures is the unanswered question: what really happened to little Alessio Bramante fourteen years ago and why was his body never found?From the Hardcover edition.

The Garden of Evil

It was a warm, golden evening in Rome a night filled with anticipation. A legendary director was premiering his new film version of Dante’s Inferno. From around the world, celebrities gathered at the Villa Borghese as the paparazzi thronged among them. But within moments the event was in chaos. A man was dead. The film s star was missing and a priceless relic had vanished. In David Hewson s masterful new novel of suspense, Detective Nic Costa, numb from the recent death of his wife, finds himself and his fellow detectives drawn into a strange and terrifying limbo the first of Dante s nine circles of Hell. While Dante had Beatrice as his guide, Nic Costa has an enigmatic beauty of his own: a bored American film actress named Maggie Flavier who decides that Costa, and no one else, is suited for the job of protecting her from the danger surrounding the film. As the premiere shifts locations from Rome to San Francisco Costa leaves Europe for the first time in his life, and is pulled from his grief and ambivalence by Maggie Flavier and the city by the bay. Fortunately his fellow detectives are under no such spell. Charged with protecting a trove of rare Italian artworks and artifacts, they are also joining the hunt for a killer who has struck twice again, leaving behind a tableau of clues that range from Dante s deadly cycle of numbers to the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Now, with Maggie herself in danger, Nic must throw off the fog of wonder and infatuation he feels in the presence of this beautiful woman in all her guises. But it may already be too late. As evidence points to connections deep within the Italian Mafia, and the Roman policemen do battle with a celluloid culture they cannot quite comprehend, a killer s chilling plot is closing in around them guided by a poet s medieval vision of sin and punishment, planned with a modern genius for revenge .

Dante’s Numbers / The Dante Killings

It was a warm, golden evening in Rome a night filled with anticipation. A legendary director was premiering his new film version of Dante’s Inferno. From around the world, celebrities gathered at the Villa Borghese as the paparazzi thronged among them. But within moments the event was in chaos. A man was dead. The film s star was missing and a priceless relic had vanished. In David Hewson s masterful new novel of suspense, Detective Nic Costa, numb from the recent death of his wife, finds himself and his fellow detectives drawn into a strange and terrifying limbo the first of Dante s nine circles of Hell. While Dante had Beatrice as his guide, Nic Costa has an enigmatic beauty of his own: a bored American film actress named Maggie Flavier who decides that Costa, and no one else, is suited for the job of protecting her from the danger surrounding the film. As the premiere shifts locations from Rome to San Francisco Costa leaves Europe for the first time in his life, and is pulled from his grief and ambivalence by Maggie Flavier and the city by the bay. Fortunately his fellow detectives are under no such spell. Charged with protecting a trove of rare Italian artworks and artifacts, they are also joining the hunt for a killer who has struck twice again, leaving behind a tableau of clues that range from Dante s deadly cycle of numbers to the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Now, with Maggie herself in danger, Nic must throw off the fog of wonder and infatuation he feels in the presence of this beautiful woman in all her guises. But it may already be too late. As evidence points to connections deep within the Italian Mafia, and the Roman policemen do battle with a celluloid culture they cannot quite comprehend, a killer s chilling plot is closing in around them guided by a poet s medieval vision of sin and punishment, planned with a modern genius for revenge .

The Blue Demon / City of Fear

It was a warm, golden evening in Rome a night filled with anticipation. A legendary director was premiering his new film version of Dante’s Inferno. From around the world, celebrities gathered at the Villa Borghese as the paparazzi thronged among them. But within moments the event was in chaos. A man was dead. The film s star was missing and a priceless relic had vanished. In David Hewson s masterful new novel of suspense, Detective Nic Costa, numb from the recent death of his wife, finds himself and his fellow detectives drawn into a strange and terrifying limbo the first of Dante s nine circles of Hell. While Dante had Beatrice as his guide, Nic Costa has an enigmatic beauty of his own: a bored American film actress named Maggie Flavier who decides that Costa, and no one else, is suited for the job of protecting her from the danger surrounding the film. As the premiere shifts locations from Rome to San Francisco Costa leaves Europe for the first time in his life, and is pulled from his grief and ambivalence by Maggie Flavier and the city by the bay. Fortunately his fellow detectives are under no such spell. Charged with protecting a trove of rare Italian artworks and artifacts, they are also joining the hunt for a killer who has struck twice again, leaving behind a tableau of clues that range from Dante s deadly cycle of numbers to the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Now, with Maggie herself in danger, Nic must throw off the fog of wonder and infatuation he feels in the presence of this beautiful woman in all her guises. But it may already be too late. As evidence points to connections deep within the Italian Mafia, and the Roman policemen do battle with a celluloid culture they cannot quite comprehend, a killer s chilling plot is closing in around them guided by a poet s medieval vision of sin and punishment, planned with a modern genius for revenge .

The Fallen Angel

Acclaimed author David Hewson returns with this mesmerizing new thriller featuring Nic Costa and the detectives of Rome’s Questura. This time Costa must solve a case with roots buried deep in one of the ancient city s most infamous episodes a story of incest, murder, and martyrdom. It s August in Rome, and Nic Costa s vacation is about to be cut short by a scream, a girl covered in blood, and a man lying dead in the Via Beatrice Cenci. It seems that Malise Gabriel, a scholar with an impressive list of enemies, stepped onto faulty scaffolding for a cigarette and fell to his death. On the surface, it s no more than an unfortunate accident. But the deeper Costa looks into the facts that don t add up, into the haunted eyes of Gabriel s beautiful daughter, Mina, and into the mysterious links between the present and the past the more he s haunted by disturbing parallels with a centuries old crime: In 1599, Beatrice Cenci was beheaded by the Vatican for murdering her father, a man known for unthinkable sexual crimes. Does Mina s obsession with Beatrice intimate her own family s dark secrets, or is someone using her as a smoke screen for a far deadlier plan? Soon another body is discovered and Nic comes to doubt his own first impressions. Something evil is circling Mina, her angry and silent mother, her runaway brother, and her family s checkered history in England, the United States, and Italy. And now that something is closing in fast for the kill. In a novel that captures modern Rome in all its complexity, as well as its history of beauty and barbarity, genius and blindness, The Fallen Angel is David Hewson at his best a twisting and twisted contest between innocence and evil.

The Savage Shore

Acclaimed author David Hewson returns with this mesmerizing new thriller featuring Nic Costa and the detectives of Rome’s Questura. This time Costa must solve a case with roots buried deep in one of the ancient city s most infamous episodes a story of incest, murder, and martyrdom. It s August in Rome, and Nic Costa s vacation is about to be cut short by a scream, a girl covered in blood, and a man lying dead in the Via Beatrice Cenci. It seems that Malise Gabriel, a scholar with an impressive list of enemies, stepped onto faulty scaffolding for a cigarette and fell to his death. On the surface, it s no more than an unfortunate accident. But the deeper Costa looks into the facts that don t add up, into the haunted eyes of Gabriel s beautiful daughter, Mina, and into the mysterious links between the present and the past the more he s haunted by disturbing parallels with a centuries old crime: In 1599, Beatrice Cenci was beheaded by the Vatican for murdering her father, a man known for unthinkable sexual crimes. Does Mina s obsession with Beatrice intimate her own family s dark secrets, or is someone using her as a smoke screen for a far deadlier plan? Soon another body is discovered and Nic comes to doubt his own first impressions. Something evil is circling Mina, her angry and silent mother, her runaway brother, and her family s checkered history in England, the United States, and Italy. And now that something is closing in fast for the kill. In a novel that captures modern Rome in all its complexity, as well as its history of beauty and barbarity, genius and blindness, The Fallen Angel is David Hewson at his best a twisting and twisted contest between innocence and evil.

Solstice

As the millennium approaches, the climate on Earth is getting progressively hotter, a phenomenon which makes scientists and others extremely nervous. Unease quickly turns to panic when Air Force One is successfully downed, key communications networks are disrupted, and the world’s financial institutions are pushed to the brink of collapse. CIA science chief Helen Wagner and Michael Lieberman, a brilliant designer of a giant space based solar array, must contend with techno savvy activists who plan to use the array to cut modern society off at the knees…
and start civilization over from scratch.

Lucifer’s Shadow / The Cemetery of Secrets

In an ancient burial ground on an island off Venice, a young woman’s casket is pried open, an object is wrenched from her hands, and an extraordinary adventure begins. From the moment he arrives in Venice, Daniel Forster is seduced by the city s mystery and eroticism. An earnest young academic, Daniel has come for a summer job cataloguing a private collector s library. But when Daniel s employer sends him to buy a stolen violin from a petty thief, a chain reaction of violence and deception ignites. Suddenly Daniel is drawn into a police investigation and a tempest swirling around a beautiful woman, a mysterious palazzo, and a lost musical masterpiece dating back centuries. With each step he takes, Daniel unwittingly retraces a journey that began in 1733, when another young man came to Venice. And when, in this realm of intrigue and beauty, two lovers came face to face with a killer and a mystery was born. Separated by centuries, two tales of passion, betrayal, and danger collide in David Hewson s dazzling novel. Sweeping us from the intrigue of Vivaldi s Venice to the gritty world of a modern cop, from the genius of a prodigy to the greed of a killer, Lucifer s Shadow builds to a shattering crescendo and one last, breathtaking surprise. From the Hardcover edition.

The Promised Land

Bierce was a happily married cop with a bright future. Then on one sunny day in July his wife and their young son were savagely beaten to death. Bierce was convicted of their murders. Languishing on Death Row 23 years later, he still has no memory of the incident. Unexpectedly, inexplicably released just seconds before his execution, he teams up with the beautiful, feisty, half Chinese Alice Loong, who guides him through the confusing new world of the 21st century. But it soon becomes clear that Alice is hiding dark secrets of her own. Pursued by mysterious enemies who are convinced that Bierce knows more than he is telling about his wife’s death, the pair are forced into a dangerous race against time to uncover the truth about the events of that fateful day.

Mallorca

One of over 400 titles in the Insight series, Insight Guide Mallorca & Ibiza. This 314 page book includes a section detailing Mallorca and Ibiza’s history, 10 features covering aspects of the islands’ life and culture, ranging from the burgeoning expatriate community to the famously hedonistic nightlife, a region by region visitor’s guide to the sights, and a comprehensive Travel Tips section packed with essential contact addresses and numbers. Plus many high quality photographs and 13 maps.

Saved: How an English Village Fought for Its Future… and Won

SAVED is the inside story of one of the biggest environmental campaign victories in recent years. It’s the entertaining and occasionally shocking David and Goliath story of how a small village defeated a GBP1 billion plan to concrete over some of the most protected countryside in England.

The Chopin Manuscript

2008 Audie Award Winner of Audiobook of the Year. Former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton possesses a previously unknown score by Frederic Chopin. But he is unaware that, locked within its handwritten notes, lies a secret that now threatens the lives of thousands of Americans. As he races from Poland to America to uncover the mystery of the manuscript, Middleton will be accused of murder, pursued by federal agents, and targeted by assassins. But the greatest threat will come from a shadowy figure out of his past: the man known only as Faust. The Chopin Manuscript is a unique collaboration by 15 of the world’s greatest thriller writers. Jeffery Deaver conceived the characters and set the plot in motion; the other authors each wrote a chapter in turn. Deaver then completed what he started, bringing The Chopin Manuscript to its explosive conclusion. ‘Innovative and unique, The Chopin Manuscript, written by masters in the field of thrillers, is far more than the sum of its parts. Here each author shines, blending individual skill and energy, into a riveting, crackling-paced tapestry of murder, mystery, and mayhem. Not to be missed!’ — James Rollins, author of The Judas Strain ‘A GREAT story, written by one GREAT author after another, in one GREAT chapter after another. A stellar achievement of collectivity that blows from the starting gate at 100 mph and never slows down. A thrill-a-page from 15 GREAT thriller masters. Don’t miss this one.’ — Steve Berry, author of The Venetian Betrayal

The Copper Bracelet

Harold Middleton returns in this explosive sequel to The Chopin Manuscript as he’s drawn into an international terror plot that threatens to send India and Pakistan into full-scale nuclear war. Careening from Nice to London and Moscow to Kashmir to prevent nuclear disaster, Middleton is unaware his prey has changed and the act of terror is far more diabolical than he knows. Will he discover the identity of the Scorpion in time to halt an event that will pit the United States, China, and Russia against each other at the brink of World War III? A follow-up to the award-winning The Chopin Manuscript, The Copper Bracelet brings together 16 of the world’s most celebrated thriller writers including Lee Child, Joseph Finder, David Hewson, David Liss, and Lisa Scottoline to each write a chapter of this pulsing tale. Once again, Jeffery Deaver set the story in motion, and brings it to its shocking finale.