Here’s something a little different: a complete short story, set in the back streets of Castello on a bitter January night — and free to anyone on my newsletter list.
Carpaccio’s Dog began life as one of a series of linked short stories woven into my standalone Venice novel Carnival for the Dead, in which the pathologist Teresa Lupo — familiar to readers of the Nic Costa series — arrives in the city during Carnival hunting for her missing aunt, Sofia, and stumbles on a set of odd tales that may hold the key to what happened to her. This is one of those tales, adapted here to stand on its own.
It follows Jerome Aitchison, a disgraced Cambridge academic hiding out in Castello, who can’t shake the feeling that a small white dog is following him — the same dog, he becomes increasingly convinced, that Vittore Carpaccio painted into St Augustine in His Study five centuries ago, on the wall of the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni.
If you want to see the painting for yourself, it’s still there, on permanent display at the Scuola — one of the loveliest and least crowded corners of Castello, and well worth the detour even without a small dog for company.
I’ve put the whole story together as a free ebook, with a cover and everything, in both EPUB and PDF — and it’s yours free just for signing up to the newsletter. Subscribe below and the download links land straight in your welcome email, so there’s nothing else to do.
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Carpaccio’s Dog is adapted from Carnival for the Dead, my standalone Venice novel featuring Teresa Lupo. You can find it here:
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