"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?
The Devil in Dorsoduro is a stylish and suspenseful European crime novel filled with atmosphere and intrigue, perfect for fans of Donna Leon and Philip Gwynne Jones."
"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, a reclusive British archivist seeking peace in the city on the lagoon, is reluctantly drawn into the mystery. Hired to authenticate the deadly manuscript, Arnold 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.
To stop the music, Arnold must unravel a trail of coded messages, heretical symbols, and the unholy legend of the diabolus in musica, a sound once believed to summon the Devil himself.
A taut, elegant thriller steeped in music, myth, and murder, The Four Deadly Seasons is perfect for fans of Dan Brown, Robert Harris, and Donna Leon.
'Arnold Clover is back in his finest adventure yet. A rollicking, operatic read from a writer who both loves and understands the city.' - Philip Gwynne Jones"
"1940: Dover waits for the Nazi invasion… but what if Hitler’s agents are already here, among them?
Canadian journalist Jessica Marshall is reporting from Dover as the town is on the brink of a German invasion. But her story never makes it into the paper…
Meanwhile, Louis Renard, an intelligent, damaged man and onetime Scotland Yard murder detective, is recuperating from wounds received in the Dunkirk invasion, working in Dover’s barely functioning police station.
When a dancer is found murdered in a secret underground bunker, Renard refuses to turn a blind eye, and Jessica smells a scoop.
As the mystery deepens, Renard begins to dig deeper into the background of the murdered woman, while Jessica Marshall is lured further into a dangerous scheme, just as the threat from the looming invasion gets closer…
When the Germans Come is a thriller about the murky and frightening dark heart of wartime Britain we rarely see."
"A noble family, a legendary painting, a cursed palazzo. The new Venetian mystery from master storyteller David Hewson.
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, a famous, some say infamous, music promoter, has just died and now the family home Ca' Scacchi, a leaning palazzo in Dorsoduro, has fallen to her. When her mother vanished so too did a priceless painting, supposedly an erotic portrait of Lucrezia Borgia, which has captivated men for generations.
When a body is discovered in a hidden crypt beneath the checkerboard courtyard of the palazzo, other secrets are unearthed with it. Lying with the body is a document, a story of an episode in Casanova's colourful life, and within it a set of clues that might lead to the location of the painting. But it quickly becomes apparent that Lizzie and Arnold are not the only ones interested in finding the painting.
The search for the lost Lucrezia quickly becomes a race through the secret history of Venice, one with potentially deadly consequences."
"Vor der einzigartigen Kulisse Venedigs erzählt David Hewson eine mitreißende Geschichte von Widerstand, Liebe und Zivilcourage.
Als der fünfzehnjährige Nico Uccello seinen Großvater Paolo im Krankenhaus besucht, vertraut ihm der todkranke Mann ein Manuskript an, das Nicos Leben und seinen Blick auf den geliebten „Nonno“ radikal verändern wird. Im Herbst 1943 ist Venedig von deutschen Truppen besetzt. Der junge Paolo Uccello kämpft nach dem Tod seiner Eltern um den Erhalt des Familienunternehmens, einer traditionsreichen Seidenweberei. Nur widerwillig bietet er im heruntergekommenen Palazzo der Familie dem jüdischen Geschwisterpaar Mika und Giovanni Unterschlupf. Beide gehören dem italienischen Widerstand an und sind auf der Flucht vor den Nazischergen. Bald aber droht die Deportation der gesamten jüdischen Gemeinde Venedigs und Paolo muss eine Entscheidung treffen. Wird er den Mut aufbringen, das Richtige zu tun? Könnten wir es?
Vom Autor der Bücher zur TV-Serie „Kommissarin Lund – Das Verbrechen“.
„Eine der Fragen, die ich beantworten wollte, war: Was bringt einen ganz normalen, nicht besonders heldenhaften Bürger dazu, sein Leben und das seiner Familie zu riskieren, um sich dem Terror entgegenzustellen? Woher kommt dieser Mut?“"
"When a well-known British TV historian, Marmaduke Godolphin, is found murdered in the canals of Venice during carnival, stabbed by a stiletto blade, the Venetian police are eager to have the case solved and cleared up within a day - murder is bad for tourism!
The police recruit the help of retired archivist, Arnold Clover. Godolphin had hired his services on arriving in Venice to help sort through some historical papers of note. These dusty documents may contain previously unknown information about the assassination of the murderer, Lorenzino de' Medici, 500 years previously.
How coincidental that Godolphin meets his death in the same place as the Medici murderer, Lorenzino, on a cold, dark, bloody night. Can Arnold use his powers of perception to establish a link and solve the murder of Godolphin?"
"Die Schrecken hinter den Mauern des Vatikans: Der fesselnde Kriminalroman »Das Blut der Märtyrer« von David Hewson jetzt als eBook bei dotbooks.
Drückende Hitze lastet auf ganz Rom – und doch hat der Polizist Nic Costa das Gefühl, sein Blut müsse gefrieren: In einer Kirche ist die Leiche eines Mannes gefunden worden, gehäutet wie der Märtyrer Bartholomäus. Der vermeintliche Täter ist mit seiner blutigen Trophäe in die Vatikanbibliothek geflohen und wird dort erschossen – vor den Augen seiner ehemaligen Freundin. War dies eine zufällige Begegnung, oder ist die Dozentin Sara Farnese tiefer in den Fall verwickelt? Schon kurze Zeit später stirbt ein weiterer Mann, den sie früher geliebt hat, einen grausamen Tod. Costa weiß, dass er schnell handeln muss, denn auch Sara selbst könnte auf der blutroten Liste des Killers stehen …
»Kein anderer Autor hat mir Rom je so lebendig ins Gedächtnis gerufen – oder so düster und bedrohlich«, urteilt der internationale Bestsellerautor Peter James.
Jetzt als eBook kaufen und genießen: Der Kriminalroman »Das Blut der Märtyrer« ist der erste Band der packenden Nic-Costa-Reihe von David Hewson. Wer liest, hat mehr vom Leben: dotbooks – der eBook-Verlag."
"In Stierkampfmanier werden während der Karwoche in Südspanien Menschen getötet. Killer in roten Kapuzenmänteln verbreiten mit ihren grotesken Ritualmorden Angst und Schrecken in der gesamten Stadt Cadìz. Die junge Maria Gutierrez, Praktikantin bei der Polizei, war auf einen solchen Fall nicht vorbereitet, doch plötzlich ist sie selbst in die unheimliche Mordserie verwickelt."
"At his beloved Nonno Paolo's deathbed, fifteen-year-old Nico receives a gift that will change his life forever: a yellowing manuscript which tells the haunting, twisty tale of what really happened to his grandfather in Nazi-occupied Venice in 1943.
The Palazzo Colombina is home to the Uccello family: three generations of men, trapped together in the dusty palace on Venice's Grand Canal. Awkward fifteen-year-old Nico. His distant, business-focused father. And his beloved grandfather, Paolo. Paolo is dying. But before he passes, he has secrets he's waited his whole life to share.
When a Jewish classmate is attacked by bullies, Nico just watches - earning him a week's suspension and a typed, yellowing manuscript from his frail Nonno Paolo. A history lesson, his grandfather says. A secret he must keep from his father. A tale of blood and madness...Nico is transported back to the Venice of 1943, an occupied city seething under its Nazi overlords, and to the defining moment of his grandfather's life: when Paolo's support for a murdered Jewish woman brings him into the sights of the city's underground resistance. Hooked and unsettled, Nico can't stop reading - but he soon wonders if he ever knew his beloved grandfather at all.
'Gripping and powerful, THE GARDEN OF ANGELS richly evokes the tension and threat of Nazi-occupied Venice. A moving and important novel.” TESS GERRITSEN, author of The Shape of Night
'Vivid and compelling. A richly wrought thriller, a love story and a warning that spans decades. I was thinking about this book for days.' SARAH PINBOROUGH, author of Behind Her Eyes"
"'Life is real…but this is Realer…'
Realer promises a new virtual reality, a safe and sanitised window into a virtual existence without the risks of the real, crumbling, post-pandemic society beyond the door. Sixteen year old Charlotte 'Charlie' Mackintosh is a loner whose father works for the company. He gives her Realer for her birthday – only to be murdered as she watches through her high-tech hood at home. Alone in a tense, post-lockdown world, Charlie has to turn to Realer to find his killers. She’s soon trapped in a murderous conspiracy behind a system that’s steadily beginning to take over people’s lives. Charlie comes to understand that she can only hide from outside dangers for so long. In the end, the only way to defeat them is face-to-face, in the real world. A place she fears more than any.
Audie award-winning author David Hewson’s edgy dystopian, near-future thriller gives us a chilling glimpse into what our post-pandemic world could become."
"Newly-appointed District Sheriff Tristan Haraldsen and his wife Elsebeth are looking forward to a peaceful semi-retirement in the remote fishing village of Djevulsfjord on the stunningly beautiful island of Vagar. But when two boys go missing during the first whale hunt of the season, the repercussions strike at the heart of the isolated coastal community. As he pursues his investigations, Tristan discovers that the Mikkelsen brothers aren’t the first young men to have vanished on Vagar. Determined to solve the mystery of Djevulsfjord, yet encountering suspicion wherever he turns, Haraldsen comes to realize he and his wife are not living in the rural paradise they had imagined, and that the wild beauty of the region hides a far darker reality.
“Both savage and strangely appealing” KIRKUS REVIEWS on The Savage Shore"
"Roman police detective Nic Costa has been sent undercover to Italy's beautiful, remote Calabrian coast to bring in the head of the feared mob, the 'Ndrangheta, who has offered to turn state witness for reasons of his own. Hoping to reel in the biggest prize the state police have seen in years, the infamous Butcher of Palermo, Costa and his team are aware the stakes are high. But the constant deception is taking its toll. Out of their depth in a lawless part of Italy where they are the outcasts, not the men in the hills, with their shotguns and rough justice, the detectives find themselves pitched as much against one another as the mob. As the tension rises, it's clear the operation is not going to plan."
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