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, The Cemetery of Secrets, 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.