BOOK ONE
Venice is a city full of secrets. For hundreds of years it has been the scene of scandal, intrigue and murderous rivalries. And it remains so today.
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.
BOOK TWO
When Arnold Clover is recruited by Lizzie Hawker to help her look into her family inheritance, he cannot begin to guess the journey he is about to embark on.
Lizzie’s mother, an Italian countess, disappeared thirty years ago, presumed dead. Her father has just died and now the family home, a leaning palazzo in Dorsoduro that is full of secrets, has fallen to Lizzie. When her mother vanished so too did a priceless painting of Lucrezia Borgia – but it quickly becomes apparent that Lizzie and Arnold are not the only ones interested in finding it.
The search for the lost Lucrezia quickly becomes a race through the secret history of Venice, one with potentially deadly consequences.
BOOK THREE
A centuries-old score. A city built on secrets. A melody that kills.
When a celebrated 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 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 concerto, another victim falls.
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BOOK FOUR
In Venice, the beauty hides secrets that are steeped in darkness.
It’s August, and the city is melting under the heat. As locals flee for Ferragosto, retired archivist Arnold Clover plans to enjoy the rare silence – until his friend in the Carabinieri asks him to check on an elderly English woman. He expects little more than locked shutters and unanswered letters. Instead, he finds her dead inside her remote and faded mansion— surrounded by strange symbols and ritualistic objects that suggest her interests ran far deeper than history books.
Left with nothing but unanswered questions, and the woman’s devoted dachshund, Bruno, Arnold is drawn into a shadowy world beneath Venice’s postcard beauty and begins to ask questions. Between bookshops, cafés and walks along the canals, he peels back the layers of his mysterious old friend’s life — and discovers a Venice few tourists ever see. A city where old beliefs linger, alchemy and folklore are taken seriously and powerful figures hide dangerous secrets.
As rumours spread, Arnold realises this murder was no isolated tragedy. Someone wanted the woman silenced. And now, as he follows the trail, is he putting his own life in danger?