David Hewson

Category: Venice

  • Out today… The Four Deadly Seasons

    Out today… The Four Deadly Seasons

    The third book in my Venice mystery series is now out worldwide in print and ebook from Bloodhound Books. You can find it online and order print versions on the web and through conventional book stores.

    Arnold Clover is back in his finest adventure yet. A rollicking, operatic read from a writer who both loves and understands the city. – Philip Gwynne Jones

    A centuries-old score. A city built on secrets. A melody that kills.

    When a mysterious music impresario is found dead in Venice—his body slumped in the hot house of a remote palazzo, a cryptic musical interval in his hand—rumours swirl around a rediscovered manuscript: the original score for The Four Seasons, penned in Vivaldi’s own hand.

    But is it a masterpiece lost to time or a masterful forgery?

    Arnold Clover, a reclusive British archivist seeking peace in the city on the lagoon, is reluctantly drawn into the mystery. Hired to authenticate the deadly manuscript, Arnold finds himself at the centre of a chilling conspiracy that spirals through shadowy music chambers, forgotten archives, and bloodstained Venetian alleyways.

    As the seasons change, so does the tempo of the killings. With each movement of Vivaldi’s immortal work, another victim falls.

    You can read more about the book here.

    Here’s a short video on the real-life mystery of Antonio Vivaldi’s career which forms a backdrop to the story.

  • What to see at Venice Noir in English

    What to see at Venice Noir in English

    Venice Noir weekend is rapidly approaching so let me give you a quick guide to the principal book events in English over the weekend. All of these are free but we do ask you to reserve a free ticket on our Eventbrite site to help with event planning. You will find it here. 

    Friday 3.30 pm Ateneo Veneto

    A Critical Look at Don’t Look Now

    We open with what I’m sure will be one of the weekend’s most memorable panels, a discussion of that classic movie Don’t Look Now, for many one of the greatest films ever set in the city. The film writer John Bleasdale, a regular for magazines such as Variety, will lead the discussion. With him will be Ian Rankin, Lisa Hilton, historian, author and frequent visitor to Venice, the city’s resident crime writer Philip Gwynne Jones and Gregory Dowling, recently retired Professor of American Literature at Ca’ Foscari. A must event – booking definitely advised. 

    Friday 4.30 pm Ateneo Veneto

    The Trial of Giacomo Casanova

    This is the tercentary of the birth of the notorious Casanova, a great Venetian romantic or so popular opinion has it. But if you actually read his memoirs a darker, more dangerous individual emerges. So was he a great romantic or really an abuser of women and a notorious liar to boot? We will stage an amusing and semi-serious trial and ask you, the audience, to be the jury at its conclusion. I’ll lead the prosecution. Lisa Hilton acts for the defence. Anna Mazzola, a lawyer as well as a prize-winning author, will offer a legal opinion. Gregory Dowling will act as judge. 

    Saturday 10.30 Ateneo Veneto

    Write About What You Don’t Know

    How do authors go about setting their stories in locales that are foreign to them? Four acclaimed novelists give us their own experiences… Essie Fox, whose new novel Dangerous features Lord Byron in Venice, Anna Mazzola, author of The Book of Secrets, this year’s winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger, Barbara Nadel whose Istanbul books were recently seen on TV, and the UK crime writer Erin Kelly who is currently writing and researching a new novel set in Venice. 

    Saturday 11.30 Ateneo Veneto

    Dining Out on Crime

    Every novel set in Italy in particular features a bar or restaurant at some stage. But crime writers aren’t creating travelogues. Food and drink serve a purpose in the story, or else they wouldn’t be there. Philip Gwynne Jones and D.V. Bishop talk about gourmet Venice, Tom Benjamin discusses his native Bologna, and Barbara Nadel talks about the role coffee and food play in her Istanbul stories.

    Saturday 15.00 Ateneo Veneto

    The Case of Old Hamlet’s Ear

    Crime writers kill people all the time. But how believable are some of the murders in fiction, among them the death of Old Hamlet, poisoned by a draught in the ear, by Shakespeare. Ian Rankin leads the discussion with Tom Benjamin and Anna Mazzola, with one of the UK’s most acclaimed pathologists, Suzy Lishman, to tell us where we get it wrong. 

    Saturday 16.00 Ateneo Veneto

    Whose Venice is it Anyway?

    Venice has inspired writers and artists for centuries. But how accurate are the portraits of the city in fiction… and does accuracy really matter? I’ll lead the discussion with Philip Gwynne Jones, author of the Venice-based Nathan Sutherland books and D.V. Bishop who moved his prize-winning historical Florence series to the Veneto this year. Prolific historian and guide Alberto Toso Fei will be there to offer the insights of a native Venetian. 

    Sunday 12.00 The Ridotto Room, the Monaco Hotel

    Final reception and the announcement of the first Venice Noir award prizewinner

    Our final closing ceremony will give you the rare chance to enter one of the most illustrious locations in the city, the Ridotto, the room overlooking the Basin of Saint Mark which was once home to the casino visited by Casanova and others. There you can meet our authors and enjoy the hospitality of one of our sponsors, Select, makers of the bitter that is at the heart of a true Venetian spritz. And we will close by revealing the first recipient of the Venice Noir award, a stunning piece of Murano glassware to be awarded annually to an author who has made a memorable contribution to the genre.

    Paid for events

    We also have two cocktail receptions, each costing €30 per person and limited to a small number of people. I will introduce Ian Rankin for the first at 7pm on Friday November 14 at Ca’ Pisani, the boutique art hotel next to the Accademia. The price will include drink and cicchetti. Ian and I will talk about his writing career and then open to questions from the audience. Email Ristorazione@capisanihotel.it for reservations. 

    At 7pm on Saturday November 15 at the Experimental Cocktail Club in the Palazzo Experimental on Zattere you can enjoy Noir At The Bar, where Philip Gwynne Jones and Gregory Dowling will discuss some of the great figures – and drinkers – in crime history. And they will unveil the official Venice Noir cocktail, invented for the occasion. Tickets €30 per person. Email reservations@palazzexperimental.com to reserve. 

    Hope to see you in Venice!

  • The trial of Casanova, Venice Noir 2025

    The trial of Casanova, Venice Noir 2025

    Three hundred years ago a child was born near today’s San Samuele vaporetto stop in Venice. He was christened Giacomo Girolamo Casanova and is, perhaps, the most famous Venetian of all in modern eyes. The great romantic. A libertine. Onetime priest, musician, spy, spiritualist, quack doctor and all-round intellectual charlatan.

    Casanova has been lionised in books and films, portrayed as a charming womaniser who may have treated women as the target of his casual flings, but was nevertheless almost heroic in his pursuit of any female he took a shine to. 

    But that is because few people have actually read the massive memoirs he wrote in sad old age, working as a librarian in Bohemia after a life that took him on a perilous journey across Europe, dodging creditors, people he’d conned and angry husbands. 

    What if Casanova wasn’t a great romantic at all but a perpetrator of a string of sexual abuses, violent on occasion, a paedophile, a crook? That is what we’ll be discussing when we put his shade on trial in the grand surroundings of the Ateneo Veneto as part of Venice Noir 2025. I will lead the prosecution case citing two instances from his own memoirs. One is his shocking account of a sexual encounter in Do Spade, a historic bacaro near the Rialto still around today, and little changed. The other is the tale of his escape from the rooftop cells of the Doge’s Palace, a story quite a few refuse to believe. Lisa Hilton will act for the defence. Anna Mazzola, a lawyer as well as a writer in real life, will give her opinion on the technical side of the evidence. While Gregory Dowling, one of the few people to have read Casanova’s memoirs in their entirety, and in their original French, will be the judge.

    And the jury? That’s you. Our audience. At the end of the trial we will ask you to decide… great romantic or an out and out cad?

    Four thirty in the Ateneo on November 14. And like all our public book events entry is free. 

    More information at www.venicenoir.com.

  • A cocktail evening in Venice with Ian Rankin

    A cocktail evening in Venice with Ian Rankin

    Venice Noir is fast approaching so if you’re interested in our new book festival I hope you’ve signed up for our newsletter at www.venicenoir.com.

    All of the principal events are free but we are now adding some interesting extras for those of you who want to make it a very special November weekend.

    Here’s the first. At 7pm on Friday November the 14th I will be introducing our guest of honour Ian Rankin at a small, informal cocktail reception in the lovely boutique hotel of Ca’ Pisani next to the Accademia gallery on Dorsoduro. We’ll talk about Ian’s work and life and latest books. There’ll be some splendid Venetian cocktails, spritz, Negroni and non-alcoholic offerings too, along with finger food and some of the local cicchetti snacks unique to the city. 

    This will be a small-scale event with the tickets strictly limited to a maximum of thirty. So if you’d like to come and take part I’d suggest you get in quick and book now. Tickets cost €30 per person including cocktail and food, a bargain alone in a place like Ca’ Pisani even without one of the most popular authors in the world as the star attraction. To get your ticket please email the hotel direct at ristorazione@capisanihotel.it.

    Ca’ Pisani is one of our partner hotels. A lovely spot and a very convenient location. There is a discount on hotel rooms for the festival available on the Ca’ Pisani website by entering the code: VENICENOIR, which gives you a 15% discount on the Flex and Bed and Breakfast rates.