Customer Reviews

The Lizard's Bite

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Sequel to 2 previous installments involving Nic Costa, partner Peroni, and Commissario Falcone, Lizard's Bite is more mystery than thriller. Two members, husband and wife, of a Murano glassmaking family are found dead in their own fornace, which has gone up in flames. Exiled to Venice for offending the powers that be in their own Rome police hierarchy, Costa and colleagues are assigned to close what looks like a cut and dried case. Who should emerge in the midst of the ashes but the enigmatic and powerful Hugo Massiter, who was heavily involved in a previous crime.
Of course, in Venice, nothing is what it seems on the surface. The Roman cops are drawn inexorably into a complex web of death, lies, coverups, and stings, at their own great peril. Author Hewson further develops the characters of his big 3, as well as those of their lady loves, who are every bit as courageous as their men. Lizard starts slowly, then builds little by little, surprise by surprise, to its unexpected conclusion. We already have Lizard's sequel, The Seventh Sacrament, on our shelf, and I can't wait to see what happens next. I like these people.

David Hewson may well be the finest mystery writer of our time. In my humble opinion, he's also one of our best contemporary writers, period. There are elements of Agatha Christie, Graham Greene and William Shakespeare in his work, but when you sit down and crack the spine of A SEASON OF THE DEAD or THE VILLA OF MYSTERIES, what you have is all and uniquely Hewson.

Which brings us to THE LIZARD'S BITE, Hewson's latest work to be published in the United States. It is the fourth book in a series of novels featuring Italian policeman Nic Costa, who, along with his partner, Gianni Peroni, has been exiled to Venice. Reunions abound in the opening chapters --- some welcome, some not. All, however, are intriguing, not the least of which is the return of Inspector Leo Falcone, who has been laboring in Verona. But the trio is quickly put in the untenable position of investigating a pair of deaths for which the powers that be --- both official and unofficial --- have preordained the result.

The situs of the murders is the Isola del Arcangeli, a factory that produced unique, highly priced and prized glass pieces for decades. But the factory and the Arcangelo family are suffering from a thousand cuts: an archaic furnace, cheap knockoffs, a falling demand. When Uriel, one of the Arcangelo brothers, is found dead in a fire at the factory, and the body of his wife Bella is discovered stuffed in the furnace, it is obvious to the local authorities that Uriel killed Bella and then died accidentally.

Costa and Peroni are directed to make short work of an inverted pyramid investigation, with their reward being an early return to Rome. The conclusion is pre-ordained, as far as the local authorities are concerned. Hewson lets his readers know just enough to realize that the conclusion is dead wrong. The fun is watching how the police slowly deconstruct the obvious conclusion, deduce the correct one and then bring the culprit(s) to justice.

Hewson peppers THE LIZARD'S BITE with a number of interesting --- and fascinating --- factoids about places and subjects that compel the reader to find out more on their own. But this common thread (among others) through Hewson's novels is not performed by rote. Think instead of a tightrope walker who performs his work daily for the same audience but introduces a new, and jeopardous, element every time. That's a Hewson novel. Very highly recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

First Sentence: In the shifting darkness of the vessel's bowels, low over the undulating black water, the animal waited, trembling.

Roman police officers Nick Costa and Gianni Peroni think they are going to get some time off with their girlfriends, former FBI agent Emily Deacon and pathologist Teresa Lupo. But things change when their boss, Leo Falcone shows up and the three of them are told they are to investigate the deaths of a Moreno glass worker and his wife. But the pressure is on as wealthy Englishman, Hugo Massiter is about to buy the island currently owned by the victim's family. The three policemen are told to investigate the deaths quickly and verify the man killed his wife and then died of spontaneous combustion. With the help of their girlfriends, the three policemen finds things are not as simple as hoped.

As a big Donna Leon fan, this was an interesting perspective of Roman policemen working in Venice. Many of the things Leon's Insp. Brunelli loves about Venice, these detectives hate. However, the corruption of some of the Italian police remains a consistent theme. There are a lot of interesting characters, but the story was short on character development. It was really the twists and turns along the way that kept me reading.

The fire in the Archangeli family glassmaking factory on the Island of Morano off Venice led to two deaths that of Uriel Archangeli and his wife Bella. The local police want to write it off as an accident, but some insist a murder suicide occurred.

Rome Police Detectives Nic Costa and Gianni Peroni are sent to Venice to rubber stamp either "truth". Instead the pair finds evidence to the contrary especially when seeking a motive as to to why Uriel would kill Bella or for that matter visa versa especially torching their beloved glassworks factory; an accident has been relegated to the realm of fantasy. The sleuths soon learn that Isolo di Archangeli glassworks was in the middle of a somewhat hostile takeover bid with Uriel as the toad in the road. Could someone wanted to remove the obstacle to the sale and is that the motive for a double homicide?

In their latest Italian police procedural, Costa and Peroni get in trouble with the brass for doing their job of running a valid inquiry. Fans of the series will enjoy the top rate investigation into whether an accident, a suicide, or a homicide covered up by arson occurred. Newcomers will become engrossed with this superior thriller and seek out their previous caseload (see THE SACRED CUT).

Harriet Klausner

This kept me going until the very end! Awesome story, a great read and a grand plot. The first time I've read this author and I can't wait to read more!

This is a very good American cops-and-robbers thriller. All the characters are Americans, in speech, action, thinking. The odd Italian word, & the odd Britishism are thrown in, Hollywood-style, for atmosphere. Venice is only an exotic backdrop. Tammany Hall in Hollywood-Venetian garb is what passes for Venetian politics. Very good entertainment.

After finishing the novel last night I have to wonder why Hewson felt the need to write what is essentially a sequel to Lucifer's Shadow.

This is definitely not one of his best. The whole mystery and resolution is a muddled piece of work. The whole discovery process of who did what and why ,especially if you have not read the first novel, is a bit confusing. The resolution is given in a "casual" conversation near the end of the novel. This is definitely not a Nic Costa novel-he is more of a walk on. The male/female relationships depicted are weak and odd,especially the Costa/Deacon one.

The only thing Hewson gets right is the atmosphere. There are shades of Aurelio Zen in that. Venice is the strongest character in the book. I have been there once and am going again-he is spot on, especially in his description of the islands.

However I don't think Lucifer's Shadow needed a sequel to tie up ends, I guess, Hewson felt he needed to tie up-at least this way. The good news is that the first two chapters of The Seventh Sacrament are included. NOW that seems promising.

I was disappointed in this book. The characters are one dimensional (there's little to care about here) and the plot is laborious.

Hewson improves on his earlier work here. The characters seem to have a little more depth (stress on the "little"), the plot is intriguing and more believable, a bit more procedure has been introduced into this procedural (including the forensic stuff that's so popular these days), and the author has abandoned his focus on wacky serial killers in favor of a real "mystery," i.e. a crime whose motive, means and perpretrator must be figured out by the detectives and by the reader. In that limited sense, Hewson does stir some echoes of Christie and others. Not a great book, but a readable and enjoyable one.

Some books literally scream for the firm attentions of a good editor and this is definitely one of them. I have read two previous books by this author and thought that they were passably good police procedurals in exotic settings (one of my weaknesses). This book however is so badly written that, had I not been away from home with nothing else handy to read, I would have given up on it more than once. Hewson repeats tired descriptive phrases over and over again (eg. many a"crumbling palazzo"), his characters are pasteboard, the plot is tortuous and the dialogue is stilted. Hewson has good writing somewhere in him but he should search for a publisher who is willing to pay an editor to check his every sentence.