Review by Booklist Review
British archivist Arnold Clover has lived in Venice for decades and knows the city and its sometimes-baffling laws and customs almost as well as a native. So when his friend Valentina, an Italian carabinieri, asks if he'll help Lizzie Hawker, daughter of an Italian contessa and a now-dead American rock-music entrepreneur, navigate an inheritance issue, he agrees. Lizzie's mother mysteriously disappeared when Lizzie was five, and her father lived a decadent lifestyle, squandering his money. Eventually, father and daughter moved to London. After Hawker's death, Lizzie stands to inherit Ca'Scacchi, the now-abandoned, dilapidated palazzo where she grew up--if she can have her mother declared dead. Then workers find a body in the palazzo's garden; it appears to be Lizzie's mother. Under the body is a sheaf of papers which turns out to contain clues leading to a priceless painting of Lucrezia Borgia that once hung in Ca'Scacchi. A murder mystery, an eye-opening tour of Venice, a lesson in Italian history, and a titillating tale of love, loss, and revenge, this is one for fans of the unusual.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Hewson's convoluted second mystery narrated by archivist Arnold Clover (following 2022's The Medici Murders) finds Brit Lizzie Hawker employing him to serve as her guide to Venice. Lizzie's mother, Venetian countess Lucia Scacchi, disappeared 30 years earlier after an apparent suicide (though her body was never found), leaving Lizzie heir to the ancient, semiderelict palazzo Ca'Scacchi. Rumor has it that hidden somewhere on the grounds is a priceless erotic portrait of 15th-century noblewoman Lucrezia Borgia, which the Venetian government wants found and kept in Italy. Matters take a bizarre turn when a corpse believed to be Lizzie's mother is discovered in a secret crypt under the palazzo's courtyard, and beneath the body, a typewritten story containing eight clues Lizzie and Arnold must solve to find the missing portrait.Their treasure hunt leads them into dark corners of Venice where they're pursued by others on the same trail. Hewson takes readers on an exhaustive tour of a fascinating city, sometimes at the expense of the central mystery. Still, there's enough intrigue at hand for readers who prefer their puzzle solving with a side of travelogue. (Aug.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A curious British curator uncovers fabulous treasures and murderous secrets in Venice. Retired archivist Arnold Clover, who moved to Venice a year ago after the death of his wife, can't resist an offer to examine the abandoned palazzo Ca' Scacchi, situated on the Grand Canal. Lizzie Hawker, who wants to unburden herself of this gothic headache before she turns 40, inherited the palazzo from her mother, Lucia, a beautiful contessa who mysteriously vanished when Lizzie was 5. Her father, Charles, aka "Chas," was a careless, and probably criminal, music mogul from London's East End. The existence of a crypt in the palazzo is a small surprise dwarfed by the discovery of a body inside. Could this be the missing contessa? Establishing the identity of the corpse is the first challenge for Clover and Lizzie. The second is locating the legendary painting of the title, which went missing at the same time Lucia did. Gothic trappings abound as the duo pore over buried documents and search historic buildings for clues to the married life and death of Lucia. All the while, unctuous villain Enzo Canale, who has designs on the property himself, is breathing down their necks with his own tawdry tales about Chas and Lucia. Along with creepy anecdotes, Hewson packs his novel with historic references going all the way back to a 14th-century rebellion, with nods to Byron, Casanova, and Primo Levi. An atmospheric thriller studded with lurid tales of Venice. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
