The Villa of Mysteries

Description

When a young woman turns up dead in a peat bog near the banks of the River Tiber, Teresa, a maverick pathologist, thinks she's got the victim of an ancient Roman ritual on her hands. She's wrong. Leo Falcone, the chief inspector, knows this case is recent history and the horror is still very much alive. So begins an investigation that will take the police deep into the dark underworld of modern day Rome's most disturbing and sinister secrets. Nic Costa is trying to stay off the drink. Gianni Peroni used to work vice until he was caught in one of his own department's stings. Emilio Neri, the local mafia boss, can't trust his own son and Vergil Wallis, the American mobster, is refusing to talk. Meanwhile, someone is trying very hard to kill the pathologist. And now another beautiful young woman has gone missing

David Hewson was born in Yorkshire in 1953. He worked as staff writer on The Times from 1978, and has written several novels, as well as a number of travel books. He is now a weekly columnist for The Sunday Times . Following A Season for the Dead, The Villa of Mysteries is the second in his Italian crime series featuring Detective Nic Costa. The author lives in Kent.

"The climax is taut and exciting ... there's an interesting score being settled by rival mobsters, some dark family secrets coming to light and some nasty betrayals in the works."
"--San Francisco Chronicle"

"From the Hardcover edition."