DAVID HEWSON

In the ancient burial ground of San Michele on an island off Venice, a young woman's casket is prised open, an object wrenched from her hands, and an extraordinary story begins. Young academic Daniel Forster arrives in Venice working for the summer in the library of a private collector. When his employer sends him to buy a stolen violin from a petty thief, he ignites a chain of violence, deception, intrigue and murder. Daniel is drawn into the police investigation surrounding a beautiful woman, a mysterious palazzo and a lost musical masterpiece dating back to 1733. Separated by centuries, two tales of passion, betrayal and danger collide transporting the reader from the intrigue of Vivaldi's Venice to the gritty world of a modern detective. From the genius of prodigy to the greed of a killer, The Cemetery of Secrets builds to a shattering crescendo - and one last, breathtaking surprise. 'Richly enjoyable ...sophisticated and beguiling' - Sunday Times .

'There's an entire underground city down there ...houses and temples, entire streets. I talked to a couple of the cavers Leo called in. They hero-worshipped Giorgio. The man had been to places the rest of them could only dream about.' Giorgio Bramante, a Roman archaeology professor, was master of the hidden world beneath the earth until the day he lost his young son, Alessio, to a group of students intent on re-creating a centuries-old ritual to a long-banished god. His rage knew no bounds and, in a frenzy, he beat one of the students to death.Released from prison fourteen years later, Giorgio is bent upon a terrifying revenge on all those he blames for the loss of his son. Inspector Leo Falcone, a member of the original investigating team, is one of his targets. And Nic Costa, watching Falcone move relentlessly into the man's merciless grip, realizes the answer must lie in solving a cold case that, like the forgotten Alessio Bramante, has long been regarded as dead and buried for good. Praise for David Hewson: 'Very enjoyable Italian mysteries ...cleverly worked out and sharply written' - "Literary Review".

Nieva en Roma. La ciudad está cubierta por una capa blanca y fría que hace que todo parezca paralizado, como si estuviera helado. El inspector Nic Costa y su compañero Gianni Peroni reciben una llamada de urgencia. Aparentemente un intruso se ha colado en uno de los edificios más emblemáticos de la Ciudad Eterna: el Panteón. Pero al llegar allí encuentran el cadáver desnudo de una mujer. Todo apunta a un crimen ritual. La obra de un loco.Sin embargo el extraño interés que demuestra el FBI, inmiscuido en el caso al tratarse la víctima de una ciudadana americana, pronto despertará las sospechas de Nic Costa.¿Qué secretos esconde el FBI y qué relación tiene este asesinato con la Guerra de Irak? Éstas son algunas de las cuestiones que Costa tendrá que responder y para ello contará con la ayuda de un testigo huidizo y excepcional...

En las afueras de la ciudad de Roma una pareja americana, cegada en su af·n por poseer un objeto auténtico de la Antigüedad, se ve desbordada ante un descubrimiento que hará estremecer a la Ciudad Eterna. Teresa Lupo, patóloga inconformista, cree tener la víctima de un antiguo ritual pagano en sus manos. El inspector Leo Falcone, sin embargo, y a pesar de los primeros indicios que apuntan hacia esta tesis, cree que est·n ante un asesinato reciente y que sin duda necesita ser esclarecido cuanto antes. Así empieza una investigación que llevará a la policía hasta los secretos más inquietantes, siniestros y oscuros del hampa romana.

This is the seventh novel in David Hewson's stunning Italian crime series.Allan Prime's eyes were as large as any man's Peroni had ever seen. He looked ready to die of fright, even before the bright, shining spear with the blood-soaked tip reached his head...The death mask of the poet Dante is to be exhibited at the premiere of a controversial film, Inferno, based on his epic work. But at the grand unveiling this priceless artefact is replaced by a macabre death mask of the film's star, Allen Prime. And minutes later, the leading actress, Maggie Flavier, is threatened before her attacker is shot.After footage of Prime's murder is shown over the internet, the Carabinieri are determined to take over the investigation, certain that a crazed Dante fan is behind the killing. Nic Costa and his team follow the movie to its next showing in San Francisco, to safeguard the remaining items and hoping to recover the stolen death mask.However, in California the mystery deepens, with confusing new clues about the deaths in Rome. With the Carabinieri and local authorities distracted by false leads, can Costa protect Maggie, find the truth and stop the killer - all before life imitates art?

On a warm, golden evening in Rome, celebrities and paparazzi gather at the Villa Borghese as a legendary director premieres his long-anticipated film version of Dante's Inferno. But minutes later the scene is chaos: A man lies dead, the film's star is missing, and a priceless relic has vanished. As the premiere shifts locations--from Rome to San Francisco--detective Nic Costa finds himself on U.S. shores for the first time, charged with protecting a trove of rare Italian artworks and artifacts, as well as an American film actress, Maggie Flavier. When a killer indeed strikes, and with Flavier in danger, Costa races to unravel the chilling clues that connect Dante's nine circles of Hell to the shattering revelations of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. But he may be too late. For a cunning plot is closing in around Costa, guided by a poet's ancient vision of sin and punishment and a killer's genius for terror.

When the sins of the past echo the crimes of the present - Detective Nic Costa faces his hardest case yet. When British academic Malise Gabriel falls to his death from a Rome apartment, detective Nic Costa rapidly comes to realize that there is much more to the accident than he had first thought. It also becomes apparent that Malise's family - mysterious and tragic daughter Mina, stoic wife Cecilia and troubled son Robert - may be keeping vital information hidden. Nic becomes obsessed with the case, and is especially intrigued by Mina's story which seems to be linked with the sixteenth century - legend of a young Italian noblewoman, Beatrice Cenci. As the investigation deepens, Rome's dark and seedy side is uncovered, revealing a web of deceit, treachery and corruption. Costa realizes that the key to the truth lies with the Gabriels. Why are they so unwilling to co-operate, and who, or what, is the reason for their silence?

Sinterklaas, a beaming, friendly saint with a white beard, was set to mark his arrival in Amsterdam with a parade so celebrated it would be watched live on television throughout the Netherlands. Today the crowds would run into three hundred thousand or more, and the police presence top four figures. The city centre was closed to all traffic as a golden barge bore Sinterklaas down the Amstel river, surrounded by a throng of private boats full of families trying to get close.' Amsterdam is bursting at the seams with children trying to get a glimpse of their hero and families enjoying the occasion. The police are out in force, struggling to manage the crowds on one of the busiest days of the year. Brigadier Pieter Vos is on duty with his young assistant, Laura Bakker, when the first grenade hits. As Sinterklaas prepares to address the crowds a terrorist outrage grips the heart of the city. In the chaos a young girl wearing a pink jacket is kidnapped. But the abducted child isn't the daughter of an Amsterdam aristocrat as the terrorists first thought. She's the daughter of an impoverished Georgian prostitute, friendless and trapped in the web of vice that is Amsterdam's Red Light District. As the security forces and the police clash over the ensuing investigation the perpetrator's horrifying demands become clear. Vos, trapped in a turf war with state intelligence, tries to unravel a conspiracy that reaches from the brothels of the city to the hierarchy of the security services. And at its heart lies an eight-year-old girl, snatched from a loving mother then ferried from one criminal lair to the next, her life in the balance as Vos and Laura Bakker struggle to uncover the shocking truth behind her abduction. What is the life of one immigrant child worth in the greater political game emerging around them?

"The Villa of Mysteries", the second novel in the Italian crime series set in Rome, features Caravaggio-loving Detective Nic Costa. In this title, when a young woman turns up dead in a peat bog, a maverick pathologist thinks she's the victim of an ancient Roman ritual. But she's wrong.

Whilst Sara pores over ancient texts in the Vatican reading room, a brutal murder is taking place in a nearby church. Then suddenly a crazed man enters the Vatican carrying a bloodied bag. He walks up to Sara's desk. He has something he would like her to see. Soon Sara is linked to a series of murders

When a young woman turns up dead in a peat bog near the banks of the River Tiber, Teresa, a maverick pathologist, thinks she's got the victim of an ancient Roman ritual on her hands. She's wrong. Leo Falcone, the chief inspector, knows this case is recent history and the horror is still very much alive. So begins an investigation that will take the police deep into the dark underworld of modern day Rome's most disturbing and sinister secrets. Nic Costa is trying to stay off the drink. Gianni Peroni used to work vice until he was caught in one of his own department's stings. Emilio Neri, the local mafia boss, can't trust his own son and Vergil Wallis, the American mobster, is refusing to talk. Meanwhile, someone is trying very hard to kill the pathologist. And now another beautiful young woman has gone missing ...

The first in a brilliant new crime series set in contemporary Rome, "A Season for the Dead" features enigmatic Detective Nic Costa as he tracks down a relentless killer who bases hi

When British academic Malise Gabriel falls to his death from a Rome apartment, detective Nic Costa rapidly comes to realize that there is much more to the accident than he had first thought.

It is Holy Week in Seville and the heat is rising. A murderer is on the loose and visiting academic Maria Gutierrez can see something in his ways that the police are missing. But her insight does nothing to help her popularity in the force - and draws her to the attention of the killer. The Angel Brothers, two controversial modern artists, are found dead in a killing that emulates a famous painting, and an old lady remembers the atrocities of the Civil War. Maria was supposed to be an observer to the police investigation. But her own past in the city soon puts her one step ahead of the cops ...and in the killer's sights. This title is first published as "Semana Santa" in 1996 by HarperCollins.

“No podía creer que todo hubiera cambiado tanto en veinte años… Era un extraño en el lugar que tan bien había conocido, en el lugar en el que me había criado, y por un breve instante me encontré añorando mi celda de dos por tres metros de Gwinett. Al menos allí sabía donde estaba…” Tras pasar en la cárcel los últimos veinte años, acusado del asesinato de su mujer e hijo, Bierce es puesto en libertad en extrañas circunstancias. Sus recuerdos de la tarde de la tragedia son confusos hasta el punto de no saber realmente si fue él el asesino o no. Una vez en la calle conocerá a la joven Alice Loong, quien a su vez busca respuestas para la muerte de su madre, acaecida aquel mismo día de 1983. Alice guiará a Bierce a través del extraño mundo feliz de comienzos del siglo XXI, un mundo que al ex convicto le parece salido de la novela de Huxley. Perseguidos por misteriosos enemigos que están convencidos de que Briece recuerda más de lo que dice, la pareja se embarca en una peligrosa carrera contra reloj para descubrir la verdad de lo que sucedió aquel lejano día. Escrita íntegramente en primera persona, esta novela, dura y descarnada, se aleja por completo de la trayectoria del autor, descubriéndole como uno de los grandes narradores contemporáneos, pues si bien la trama a simple vista puede parecernos simple, en realidad su profundidad alcanza cotas que la aproximan a la obra de Orwell o del autor de Ciego en Gaza.

For the first time in decades The Eternal City is paralysed by a blizzard. And a gruesome discovery is made in the Pantheon - one of Rome's most ancient and revered architectural treasures. Covered by softly falling snow is the body of a young woman - her back horribly mutilated ...But before Costa, Peroni and Rome's Questura can begin a formal investigation, the US Embassy has brought in its own people, FBI Agents who want the case closed down as quickly and discreetly as possible. But Costa is determined to find out why - and as the FBI grudgingly admits that this corpse is not the first, the mutilations of the woman's body point to Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man - and to a conspiracy so sinister and buried so deep, that only two people know its true, crazed meaning.