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Detectives Nic Costa and Gianni Peroni are nearing the end of their exile in Venice following a little bit of insubordination on a case in Rome. Their girlfriends are arriving shortly to join them for a holiday before they all return to Rome.
In a dilapidated glass furnace off the island of Murano the fire races out of control. Two people are dead, and for Leo Falcone, exiled to Venice, with Nic Costa and Gianni Peroni, the question is whether he's dealing with one murderer or two.The local police want to write it off as an accident, but some insist a murder suicide occurred.
For Costa, life in Venice is more perplexing on other fronts too. His relationship with Emily Deacon is deepening, and she is missing the law enforcement work she's abandoned for a different, quieter career. Slowly, the sluggish world of the lagoon begins to enfold the Romans in its sinister grip, as they try to untangle the complex family ties of the tragic Arcangeli family on a private island falling into ruin.
Costa and Peroni are ordered to rubber stamp either "truth". Instead the pair finds evidence to the contrary especially when seeking a motive as to to why Uriel would kill Bella or for that matter visa versa especially torching their beloved glassworks factory; an accident has been relegated to the realm of fantasy. The sleuths soon learn that Isolo di Archangeli glassworks was in the middle of a somewhat hostile takeover bid with Uriel as the toad in the road. Could someone wanted to remove the obstacle to the sale and is that the motive for a double homicide?
In their latest Italian police procedural, Costa and Peroni get in trouble with the brass for doing their job of running a valid inquiry. Fans of the series will enjoy the top rate investigation into whether an accident, a suicide, or a homicide covered up by arson occurred. Newcomers will become engrossed with this superior thriller and seek out their previous caseload (see THE SACRED CUT).
This is not the tourist venice of San Marco and the Rialto. The book focuses on the glass-making island of Murano where, in real life, many firms and families are facing difficult economic times due to changing tastes in modern glass. Another neighbourhood which features is Castello, the last real working class community of Venice. Castello was one of the areas of Venice where Paul and I spent hours exploring the twisting turns of the walkways and canals.
Venice is awash with fictional detectives. It's the birthplace and spiritual home of Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen as well as Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti. It's an easy market to enter – Venice has so much to offer the aspiring novelist with its historic city and dubious politics – but a difficult one to conquer. David Hewson hasn't conquered the market but there is promise there.
He has Venice to perfection – the dying city which is being turned into a theme park to attract yet more of the tourists who are strangling the place. He has the murky politics too – the place where not being corrupt is quaint and rather strange and it's accepted that those who rise to the top are likely to be crooks, with the only worry being the advantages which might flow from this. He has the insularity of the outlying areas – Murano, where even the Arcangelo family who have been glass blowers on the island for decades are despised as newcomers, or the farmer from the nearby mainland who takes pride in the fact that he is not Venetian.
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