A Venetian mystery
1548, Lorenzino de Medici, himself a murderer and a man few will miss, is assassinated by two hired killers.
Today, Marmaduke Godolphin, British TV historian and a man even fewer will miss, is stabbed by a stiletto blade on the exact same spot, his body dropping into the canal.
Can the story of the first murder explain the attack on Godolphin? The Carabinieri certainly think so. They recruit retired archivist Arnold Clover to unpick the mystery and to help solve the case. But the conspiracy against Godolphin runs deeper than anyone imagined.
David Hewson has found a winning combination of research, make-believe and mouthwatering cuisine. Fans of Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti, Michael Dibdin’s Aurelio Zen and Henry James’s The Aspern Papers will love it.
THE TIMES
Recent work
One of the thrillers of the year in The Times,
In 1999 fifteen-year-old Nico Uccello is called to his dying grandfather’s bedside. The ailing Paolo Uccello has a gift that will change his life forever… the untold story of his life under Nazi occupation during the Second World War, and his relationship with two young Jewish partisans on the run from the Germans.
A standalone chiller set in the remote Faroe Islands… As grim as the bleakest of Nordic noir. If you think the solution to the crime will produce a happy ending, just wait till the chilling final pages. Kirkus Reviews
The latest in the ever-popular Nic Costa series. For once, not in his home city of Rome but Calabria, where Costa and his colleagues have been sent undercover with a perilous mission… taking into custody a gang boss who’s decided to turn informer, at risk to the lives of everyone involved.
Explore Italy’s most famous road
A Journey along the Appian Way
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The world of audio originals
The bleak highlands of Scotland with Alan Cumming retelling the story of Macbeth, a steamy summer in Verona where Richard Armitage narrates David’s reworking of the classic story of Romeo and Juliet, in an Audie-winning performance, and a chilly dystopian Yorkshire where Gemma Whelan tells the story of a young girl’s’ escape from tyranny in Realer…
David has been at the forefront of audio originals since the early days of the medium. Explore his rich portfolio of work on our Audio Originals page.
A late-page revelation will have readers gasping in surprise, and Hewson expertly balances tense action and thoughtful emotion. Fans of character-driven WWII thrillers will want to check this out.
Publishers Weekly on The Garden of Angels
A very fine novel, which is more of a re-imagining of the original story than a carbon copy – and with the bonus of a brand new twist to the ending.
Daily Mail on The Killing
Hewson expertly paints a punishing Faroese winter, crafting the perfect backdrop for this chilling addition to the growing field of crime fiction set in the Faroe Islands.
Booklist on Devil’s Fjord
News and opinion
Out today… Garten der Engel
Many thanks to my publisher in German, Folio, for this beautiful edition of Garten der Engel which is out today. It really is one of the loveliest hardbacks I’ve ever had. And thanks too for the company in Venice for our media event last week. Fingers crossed the tale of Paolo and Nico Uccello will…
The Borgia Portrait — a new Venetian mystery
Arnold Clover is coming back, along with his raffish friend Luca Volpetti and the ever-watchful Carabiniere captain Valentina Fabbri. You’ll find them embroiled in a set of very Venetian riddles in the second novel in the series, The Borgia Portrait, published in the UK and US in hardback by Severn House and on audio by…
Now out in a new print and ebook edition… Hamlet
It’s something like ten years since I started work on an adaptation of Hamlet for Audible with my good friend A.J. Hartley. It was an experimental project, one that took a sideways look at a very familiar story. The work also introduced us to an actor chap called Richard Armitage who took our original script…
David Hewson 