The Medici Murders - David Hewson

 I first became aware of David Hewson, when I read his novelisations of the Danish TV series The Killing and I absolutely loved those adaptations.

But I’ve never read anything else by him, so I was delighted to get my hands on a proof of this histfic thriller set in Venice. Often, when a story is set in a certain place, the location has little impact on the narrative. The story could be set anywhere. That isn’t the case here. Venice is almost another character in the story. The author’s knowledge and love of the city is palpable as he describes the lesser details of Venice that is to say off the beaten track, not the tourist locations although they feature too.

It’s a complex storyline, the present day weaving with the past most satisfactorily. It’s what I like to call a ‘revelatory’ novel where the reader is fed all the information they need via one person telling another. So you’re not getting the events in real time until the end when there is an almost Agatha Christie like exposition.

I found it to be very much the cerebral mystery. It’s not a book of intense action and nailbiting thrills. It’s nuanced, particularly the denouement, which is so subtle and unexpected. If there is such a thing as a literary thriller, then this would be it. The writing is substantial with a slow paced, slow burning narrative, where we explore the characters of Valentina Fabbri, the female detective and Arnold Clover a widowed archivist who has retired to Venice. Hewson develops a fascinating dynamic between these two. The other characters play their part effectively, and I will not be drawn into giving anything away. The murdered man, Marmaduke Godolphin, is obnoxious, and the way he plays his cruel games with people is despicable. And the reader is not encouraged to waste any emotion on his passing. So there is plenty of room to focus all of the attention on the how’s and whys and who’s. It’s a clever story. 

My thanks to Canongate Books for a gifted proof.