From the freezing Venice of Carnival to the searing bullring of Seville… the master of Eurocrime at work.
Since his acclaimed debut with Semana Santa (now republished as Death in Seville) in 1996 David Hewson has crossed and recrossed Europe in a series of acclaimed novels. As well as the Costa series in Rome to The Killing in Copenhagen and the Pieter Vos books in Amsterdam he’s twice returned to Venice and more recently visited Florence for standalone books published in multiple language across the world. And now, with Juliet and Romeo, the historic Veneto city of Verona.
Devil’s Fjord
Tristan and Elsebeth Haraldsen retire from the relative bustle of the capital of the Faroes Island to settle into a new life in the remote village of Djevulsfjord where Tristan has the part-time job of District Sheriff, overseeing the bloody summer whale hunts.
But life in the seemingly-idyllic hamlet is nowhere near as peaceful as it seems. During a sudden hunt two young boys from the village go missing after an altercation with Tristan. Struck with guilt, supported by his wife, the outsider vows to get to the bottom of their disappearance. And as he does so the couple begin to realise their days in Djevulsfjord may soon be numbered.
A standalone mystery available from Severn House. Read more about the book and how it came about here.
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
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
Juliet and Romeo
Out now in the UK from the Dome Press… the book version of David’s popular adaptation of the greatest love story ever told. A reimagined version of both Shakespeare’s play and the original Italian stories on which it was based.
It’s a sweltering summer in Verona in 1499. Romeo meets Juliet, a sixteen-year-old child of the Renaissance, desperate to forge her own identity in the fast-changing world around her. But their two families are at war… and Juliet is under immense pressure from her parents to wed the aristocrat Count Paris. It’s the story you know with a twist you won’t see coming.
With a foreword by Richard Armitage whose narration of the audio original garnered a nomination as best audio original in the 2018 Audie awards. This is a reworked version of the audio script, expanded in book form (which means you can’t listen to it word-for-word against the audio version).
The Flood
A dazzling Italian mystery, rich in intrigue and dark secrets, from an internationally bestselling crime writer at the height of his powers.
Florence, 1986. A seemingly inexplicable attack on a church fresco of Adam and Eve brings together an unlikely couple: Julia Wellbeloved, an English art student, and Pino Fratelli, a semi-retired detective who longs to be back in the field. Their investigation leads them to the secret society that underpins the city: an elite underworld of excess, violence and desire.
Seeped in the culture of Tuscany’s most mysterious city, The Flood takes the reader on a dazzling journey into the darkness in Florence’s past: the night of the great flood in 1966.
Readers of Donna Leon and Michael Dibdin or Italian authors Andrea Camilleri and Carlo Lucarelli will find this gripping. Library Journal
Carnival for the Dead
In Venice the past was more reticent. Beyond the tourist sights, San Marco and the Rialto, it lurked in the shadows, seeping out of the cracked stones like blood from ancient wounds, as if death itself was one more sly performance captured beneath the bright all-seeing light of the lagoon.
It’s February, and Carnival time in Venice. Forensic pathologist Teresa Lupo visits the city to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her beloved bohemian Aunt Sofia. But from the moment she is greeted off the vaporetto by a masked man dressed in the costume of The Plague Doctor, Teresa starts to suspect that all is not well.
The puzzle deepens when a letter reveals a piece of fiction in which both Sofia and Teresa appear. Even more strange, are the links to the past which gradually begin to surface. Are the messages being sent by Sofia herself? Her abductor? Or a third party seeking to help her unravel the mystery? The revelation is as surprising and shocking as Sofia’s fate. And Teresa herself comes to depend upon the unravelling of a mystery wrapped deep inside the art and culture of Venice itself.
A standalone mystery featuring one of the most popular characters from the Nic Costa series.
Carnival For The Dead is a reminder that we are in the hands of one of the most accomplished crime writers in this country. Barry Forshaw, Express
The Cemetery of Secrets (Lucifer’s Shadow US)
In the ancient burial ground of San Michele on an island off Venice, a young woman’s casket is prised open, an object wrenched from her hands, and an extraordinary story begins.
Young academic Daniel Forster arrives in Venice working for the summer in the library of a private collector. When his employer sends him to buy a stolen violin from a petty thief, he ignites a chain of violence, deception, intrigue and murder. Daniel is drawn into the police investigation surrounding a beautiful woman, a mysterious palazzo and a lost musical masterpiece dating back to 1733.
Separated by centuries, two tales of passion, betrayal and danger collide transporting the reader from the intrigue of Vivaldi’s Venice to the gritty world of a modern detective. From the genius of prodigy to the greed of a killer, The Cemetery of Secrets builds to a shattering crescendo – and one last, breathtaking surprise.
First published as Lucifer’s Shadow. Now in a revised, new edition.
David Hewson bravely invades the stamping ground of Donna Leon in the complex and cunning Carnival for the Dead. Telegraph
Death in Seville
It is Holy Week in Seville and the heat is rising. A murderer is on the loose and visiting academic Maria Gutierrez can see something in his ways that the police are missing. But her insight does nothing to help her popularity in the force – and draws her to the attention of the killer.
The Angel Brothers, two controversial modern artists, are found dead in a killing that emulates a famous painting, and an old lady remembers the atrocities of the Civil War. Maria was supposed to be an observer to the police investigation. But her own past in the city soon puts her one step ahead of the cops … and in the killer’s sights.
First published as Semana Santa in 1996 by HarperCollins.
David Hewson 