Sat 23 Sep 2017
A Mystery Review by David Vineyard: DAVID HEWSON – The Villa of Mysteries.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[3] Comments
DAVID HEWSON – The Villa of Mysteries. Nic Costa #2. Delacorte Press, hardcover, January 2005. Dell, paperback, August 2005.
If you haven’t read David Hewson’s literate and well written thrillers about Rome’s forensic pathologist Teresa Lupo and detective Nic Costa, you are in for a treat.
The pair debuted in A Season for the Dead, which was filmed with Mira Sorvino, and now they are back in another dark and forbidding outing with echoes of Dan Brown and the Da Vinci code school, true Gothic atmosphere, conspiracy theory, the detective novel, and taut suspense.
In The Villa of Mysteries the body of a long dead young woman found partially mummified in a bog leads Teresa and Nic into a similar case that has just happened. How the two cases connected and why spins out of control into violence, Italian history, and adds a twist to the serial killer novel with sacrificial murder and the rituals of a secret society involved.
The finely detailed background, authentic research, a combination of human drama, and a plot that is complex but never static and combined with a taut line of suspense make Hewson one of the best writers to explore this sub-genre of the thriller.
Even if like me the words serial killer are enough to turn you off most thrillers, this one is truly different, and if you have grown weary of the Da Vinci Code school and the parade of forensic pathologist sleuths, this offers much more than either. The view of police work in Rome, the use of the cities dark corners, and long buried ancient evils is palpable in Hewson’s writing making his books much more than a rehash of what has been done before.
For superb use of setting and atmosphere, intriguing plots, believable and attractive (and not so attractive) human characters, and fine writing you can’t go wrong with David Hewson or The Villa of Mysteries.
The Nic Costa series —
1. A Season for the Dead (2003)
2. The Villa of Mysteries (2004)
3. The Sacred Cut (2005)
4. The Lizard’s Bite (2006)
5. The Seventh Sacrament (2007)
6. The Garden of Evil (2008)
7. Dante’s Numbers (2008) aka The Dante Killings
8. The Blue Demon (2010) aka City of Fear
9. The Fallen Angel (2011)
September 23rd, 2017 at 4:32 pm
He has also written a very good series set in Amsterdam featuring Pieter Vos and Laura Bakker, which is up to four books now.
September 23rd, 2017 at 7:43 pm
Yes, it looks as though the Costa series has come to a close, but you never can tell.
Here’s a list of the followup Vos/Bakker series, so far:
1. The House of Dolls (2014)
2. The Wrong Girl (2015)
3. Little Sister (2016)
4. Sleep Baby Sleep (2017)
I don’t know anything about these books, though one website refers to “Brigadier Pieter Vos and his young assistant, Laura Bakker,” so I assume they’re both doing police work.
Incidentally, as soon as I find my review of the third Costa book, I’ll post it next. The author sent me a meaty email about it afterward, which I’ll add, as I’m sure it will be of interest.
September 23rd, 2017 at 9:46 pm
Both are police, he is from the city and she is from the countryside, and considered a little rough around the edges to the city folk.