The Borgia Portrait: 2

A Venetian Mystery, Book 2

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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.

David HewsonRichard ArmitageW. F. Howes LtdVenetian Mysteries

Amateur Sleuths

Fiction

International Mystery & Crime

Mystery

Italy

Detective

Suspense

Amateur Sleuths Fiction International Mystery & Crime Mystery Italy Detective Suspense

Continue the series

The Four Deadly Seasons

By: David Hewson

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These books transported me to Venice - I could picture every piazza, rio and sottoportego and almost taste the salt-air of the lagoon on every page. The mystery at the heart of the novel kept me guessing, and I had great fun playing along with the treasure hunt the characters set out on, often pausing the book to conduct my own research and mark off points on a Google map before listening on to see if I’d been right. David Hewson’s stories are quietly complex and thrilling — not flashy or designed to shock, but seemingly to engage the mind and the senses and take you along on a journey of discovery along with his characters.

Richard Armitage’s performance was reliably fantastic. Not only does he have the most wonderful, rich and dulcet voice, but he brings real feeling and considered nuance to every story he narrates — his acting talent shines through in his delivery of the prose, understated yet impactful. Arnold Clover comes to life for me through his expert performance, exemplifying how narrator and novelist can work masterfully together to deliver a fascinating tale told through the eyes of a complex, gentle, intelligent and very human protagonist.

I’ve come to feel like I know these characters and the Venice they inhabit over the course of the first two books in this series, and I hope to enjoy many more in future.