Blue Demon [Paperback]

David Hewson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 5, 2010

Twenty years ago, a mysterious group called the Blue Demon committed a series of bizarre and ritualistic crimes evoking the legacy of the lost race of the Etruscans, and leaving in their wake a group of dead students, a murdered couple, a cryptic message and a kidnapped child. Now, the leaders of the G8 are descending on Rome for a summit at the Quirinale Palace. But when a politician is found ritually murdered, seemingly by a strange young man dressed as an Etruscan god, detective Nic Costa suspects that the old case was never really solved. The Blue Demon appear to have returned - and planning, under the leadership of the fanatical Andrea Petrakis, to unleash a devastating sequence of attacks on the city. As Costa and his team start to dig deeper into the past, they find that there are still too many unanswered questions - and much more to the history of the Blue Demon than anyone wants to admit ...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A threatened terrorist attack during a G8 conference spells trouble both personal and professional for sovrintendente Nic Costa in Hewson's assured eighth novel to feature the Roman police detective (after Dante's Numbers). Italian president Dario Sordi, a former friend of Costa's late father, asks Costa to look into the re-emergence of the Blue Demon, a strange terrorist group fascinated with Etruscan civilization, which is linked to past and present-day murders of bland civil servants and an imminent strike against the conference delegates. As Costa and his team of investigators examine the trails of evidence more closely, what they find does not match the official facts and reveals uneasy connections to the government and other agents that may point to a larger conspiracy. Well-drawn characters, a brisk pace, and some unexpected plot twists provide a satisfying read for the political thriller fan. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Hewson’s eighth novel starring Rome police sovrintendente Nic Costa returns to the rich themes that drove The Garden of Evil (2008): the commingling of sensuality and perverted idealism. In Garden, the subject was Caravaggio; here it is the Etruscans, whose hedonistic, life-affirming civilization was crushed by the Romans. On the eve of a G8 conference in Rome, a long-dormant terrorist group, the Blue Demon, whose leader sees himself as a latter-day Etruscan laying claim to what was once his, has abducted a Ministry of the Interior official and announced plans to further disrupt the conference. As Costa and his team attempt to follow the Blue Demon’s trail, hints of a governmental conspiracy extending back to the postwar era begin to surface. As always, Hewson builds an elaborate plot, extending deep into ancient history but evoking fascinating parallels with contemporary situations. Here, the sensitive but largely ineffectual Italian president, himself sympathetic, like the terrorists, to the Etruscan way of life, seems overwhelmed by the ruthless, power-hungry conspirators he opposes, much as the Etruscans were vanquished by the Romans’ “burning desire to own and rule.” But will Costa and his determined band of ruggedly individual, antiauthoritarian colleagues be able to alter the equation? In past reviews, we’ve called this series a “superb mix of history, mystery, and humanity.” That assessment is further reaffirmed with each new entry. --Bill Ott --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan; Export ed edition (February 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230711340
• ISBN-13: 978-0230711341
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.3 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,259,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Hewson's novels have been translated into a wide range of languages, from Italian to Japanese, and his debut work, Semana Santa, set in Holy Week Spain, was filmed with Mira Sorvino. Dante's Numbers is his thirteenth published novel.

David was born in Yorkshire in 1953 and left school at the age of seventeen to work as a cub reporter on one of the smallest evening newspapers in the country in Scarborough. Eight years later he was a staff reporter on The Times in London, covering news, business and latterly working as arts correspondent. He worked on the launch of the Independent and was a weekly columnist for the Sunday Times for a decade before giving up journalism entirely in 2005 to focus on writing fiction.

Semana Santa won the WH Smith Fresh Talent award for one of the best debut novels of the year in 1996 and was later made into a movie starring Mira Sorvino and Olivier Martinez. Four standalone works followed before A Season for the Dead, the first in a series set in Italy. The seventh Roman novel featuring Nic Costa and his colleagues, Dante's Numbers, appeared in October 2008. At the end of 2006 he signed renewed contracts with Pan Macmillan in the UK and Bantam Dell in the US to extend the series to nine books, running to 2012. The titles are published in numerous languages around the world including Chinese and Japanese... and Italian.

He has featured regularly on the speaker lists of leading international book events, including the Melbourne and Ottawa writers' festivals, the Harrogate Crime Festival, Thrillerfest, Bouchercon and Left Coast Crime. He has taught at writing schools around the world and is a regular faculty member for the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference in Corte Madera, California, where he has worked alongside writers such as Martin Cruz Smith and Michael Connelly.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Welcome Addition to a Great Series, June 3, 2010

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City of Fear: A Novel (Hardcover)

The publication of a new Nic Costa novel by David Hewson is an annual reminder of all of the elements that contribute to the joy of reading. The books that comprise the series are smart, original and riveting. Their unifying theme --- other than, of course, their memorable primary and supporting casts --- is that the past informs and shapes our present in ways obvious and otherwise. And while each and all are properly and accurately classified as mysteries (highly complex ones) and thrillers (of the literary sort, relying only secondarily on explosions and bloodletting), Hewson never loses sight of the human condition as his narrative expertly slices into and out of the lives of his characters and the situations that their interactions create.

Nic Costa is one of the more quietly intriguing characters in genre fiction. A Rome police sovrintendente who is the son of a late, well-known Communist, Costa is no stranger to either dark tragedy or subdued triumph. While the series nominally features an ensemble cast of characters, it is Costa who remains first among equals and, yes, superiors, as he navigates the cesspool of Italian politics with a quiet deftness in a system that often impedes the apprehension of criminals. History plays an important part in CITY OF FEAR as in the other Costa novels. Rome, being one of the world's greatest and ancient cities, has provided a broad canvas for Hewson with which to paint and play. Yet it is Rome's more recent past that figures prominently in the novel.

CITY OF FEAR opens on the eve of the G8 conference, with the world's leaders assembling in a Rome that is uneasy with and ill-suited for a conference of this magnitude. Security for the event is immediately and violently breached, apparently by the Blue Demon, an enigmatic terrorist individual or organization first introduced into Rome in the early years of the latter half of the 20th century. Taking its name from an ancient Etruscan entity, the Blue Demon intends to disrupt the conference through abductions and terrorists acts. After the initial terrorist act, the city goes into lockdown, threatening the livelihood of the Roman citizens and the future of the conference.

Costa, initially lacking jurisdiction in the matter, is asked to conduct a clandestine investigation by Italian president Dario Sordi, a former colleague of Costa's late father. Sordi is locked in an ongoing power struggle with Ugo Campagnolo, the Italian Prime Minister who recklessly invited the Summit to Rome. Sordi is now charged with controlling the mess that Campagnolo created. When Costa and his team dig into the history of the Blue Demon's origin in search of a trail to bring the Blue Demon down, they discover discrepancies in the record that may well affect the present government and that points to a larger conspiracy with roots in Rome and beyond. As always, Costa lets the evidence take him where it may, and he is well-matched by his professional colleagues who are of similar independent mind. As with other volumes in the series, CITY OF FEAR is complete in itself, but by story's end, enough has changed to provide welcome grist for yet another highly anticipated new volume.

No one is writing books quite like these --- books set in an exotic yet deceptively familiar site that combine elements of history, politics, and mystery in equal and exotic dollops that produce something unique and different each time while utilizing ingredients familiar and otherwise. CITY OF FEAR is a welcome addition to a series worth reading and revisiting on a regular basis.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Political murder mystery, June 2, 2010

By 

John T. Kane "The Phoenix" (Kirkland, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: City of Fear: A Novel (Hardcover)

I have read all eight of David Henson's Nick Costa and sight unseen, I pre-ordered this one and got it last week. After I finished my current novel, I started this book and read it during most of my free time, including one night up to 2am. It takes a bit of getting use to the intimate exposure to Italy, Rome and the characters, but if you put the time in, you will find this book a most exciting read. I had expected it to end in the traditional way (cops get the bad guys and find a new love), but David again threw in some new techniques and plot twists. It is not my place here to expose the plot or how it ends, but Nick and his team of cohorts (plus one or two more) live to fight the big fights! For those new to this series, David Henson has his own site and blog: [...]. He is without doubt one of the best authors I have read and I have been reading (and soon writing) for many years now!

Highly Recommended!

3.0 out of 5 stars Complex Storyline, December 13, 2011

By 

LindyLouMac (Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blue Demon (Nic Costa 8) (Kindle Edition)

I doubt I would ever have considered reading this title had it not been for the Italy in Books Reading Challenge for 2011. Thrillers and mysteries are a genre I do not read a great deal of although I have a few authors of this genre I enjoy. In fact I usually only read this genre if it is one my husband has read and recommends to me. This was the case with this one and also to be honest I was hunting around our bookshelves for something set in Italy for the final book of the challenge. So although this title would maybe not be my first choice I did find it a good read and the fact that it was set in places I am familiar with added to the interest considerably.

With mainly Italian characters, lots of references to Italian history, art and culture, use of Italian and familiar places how could I fail to enjoy this novel. Having visited some of the Etruscan tombs in this region it was fascinating to read a novel weaved around the legacy of the lost race of the Etruscans. The storyline is complex with many twists and turns and will keep you guessing right to the very end.

The story commences with the kidnapping of a government minister and his driver murdered, just days before an important conference with leaders of the G8 in Rome. When a ritual murder takes place, performed it seems by someone dressed as The Blue Demon from Etruscan history. It is then that Detective Nic Costa suspects that a twenty year old case where a mysterious group committed a series of crimes in the style of the infamous Blue Demon of Etruscan history was never really solved. The group has reformed and are planning attacks on Rome with devastating consequences. Old Etruscan myths, conspiracy and murders old and new are all part of the investigation.

Well worth reading if you are not only a lover of all things Italian but enjoy a good mystery.