BOOK ONE
While Sara Farnese pours over ancient texts in the silent 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…
Thrust into the case is Nic Costa, an up-and-coming detective in Rome’s police force, whose mission is both to track down the killer and protect Sara from the horrors he is capable of.
BOOK TWO
When a young woman turns up dead in a peat bog near the banks of the River Tiber, Teresa Lupo, a maverick pathologist, thinks she’s got the victim of an ancient Roman ritual on her hands.
When a young woman turns up dead in a peat bog near the banks of the River Tiber, Teresa Lupo, a maverick pathologist, thinks she’s got the victim of an ancient Roman ritual on her hands.
She’s wrong. Detective Nic Costa, of Rome’s police force, knows this case is recent history and the horror is still very much alive.
BOOK THREE
It’s Christmas Eve and, for the first time in decades, Rome is paralysed by a blizzard. As the snow falls softly, a horrible discovery is made in the Pantheon, one of the Eternal City’s most ancient and revered architectural treasures. The body of a young woman carefully positioned on the marble floor, a gruesome carving on her back . . .
But before Detective Nic Costa and his partner Peroni can begin a formal investigation, the US Embassy brings in its own people: FBI Agents, who want the case closed down as quickly and discreetly as possible.
BOOK FOUR
In exile in Venice, after offending people they shouldn’t have, Detective Nic Costa and his partner Gianni Peroni are offered a chance to return to Rome. All they have to do is wrap up an apparently open-and-shut murder case on the island of Murano, where a glassmaker killed his wife and subsequently died himself when his furnace exploded.
The pair investigate, but as they dig more deeply into the insular glass-making community and the strange Arcangeli family, things don’t quite add up. With increasing pressure from above to come to a conclusion the detectives are increasingly sure is a cover-up, events spiral quickly out of control – with devastating consequences . . .
BOOK FIVE
Giorgio Bramante, a charismatic Roman archaeology professor, was considered master of the labyrinth of dank catacombs that lie beneath the Eternal City – until the day his seven-year-old son, Alessio, vanished into them. The matter was never solved, in part because – inexplicably – Giorgio was left alone with the prime suspect . . . and in his frenzied rage, he beat the man 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. One by one, those connected to the boy’s disappearance are dying. And Detective Nic Costa’s maverick boss, Inspector Leo Falcone, was a member of the original investigating team . . .
BOOK SIX
Inside a deserted studio, in a seedy area of Rome best known for prostitution, an art expert from the Louvre is found dead in front of one of the most beautiful paintings that Detective Nic Costa has ever seen – an unknown Caravaggio masterpiece.
This death is just the start. Before long, tragedy strikes Costa far closer to home . . . and the hunt to find the killer becomes deeply personal. But while the main suspect’s identity is known, he remains untouchable – protected in his grand palazzo by a fleet of lawyers and a sinister cult known as the Ekstasists.
BOOK SEVEN
It’s a warm, golden evening in Rome, and celebrities from around the world have gathered to attend the movie premiere of a blockbuster adaptation of Dante’s Inferno. The poet’s death mask is to be exhibited as part of the evening’s events, alongside other important historical relics.
But at the grand unveiling, the priceless artefact is gone – replaced by a macabre death mask of the film’s star, Allan Prime. A sick prank . . . or something worse? And to further throw the evening into chaos, another of the leading actors, the beautiful Maggie Flavier, is threatened, and her assailant killed.
BOOK EIGHT
It’s the height of the tourist season in Rome, and security is tight as world leaders gather for a G8 summit at the illustrious Quirinale Palace. But the event is thrown into chaos when a politician is found ritually murdered, seemingly by a strange young man dressed as an Etruscan god.
Twenty years ago, a mysterious terrorist group known as the Blue Demon terrorised the city, committing a series of ritualistic crimes inspired by ancient Etruscan culture. Detective Nic Costa, of Rome’s police, suspects that the old case was never really solved, and the Blue Demon has risen once again.
BOOK NINE
When British academic Malise Gabriel falls to his death from a Rome apartment, it seems like an unfortunate accident. But Detective Nic Costa rapidly comes to realise that not only is there more to the accident than he first thought, but Malise’s family – mysterious and tragic daughter Mina, stoic wife Cecilia and troubled son Robert – may be keeping vital information hidden.
The deeper Costa looks, the more he’s disturbed by mysterious links between the case and a centuries-old crime: the murder of an Italian nobleman in 1599 by his own daughter, who was beheaded by the Vatican as punishment for her sins.
BOOK TEN
The ‘Ndrangheta is a ruthless mafia organisation, one of the richest and most powerful organised crime groups in the world. Completely impenetrable to outsiders, merciless when crossed, they run the savage Calabrian coast of Italy. And for reasons best known to himself, the head of this feared mob – known only by his nickname, Lo Spettro, the Ghost – has offered to turn state witness.
Costa and his team are sent deep undercover into the mountains, to negotiate with Lo Spettro and bring him in. With Lo Spettro’s help, Costa dons a new identity and becomes a member of the mafia family. It’s a dangerous game, and a single slip up could mean an end not only to the operation, but to the lives of Costa and his team.