The Seventh Sacrament [Paperback]

David Hewson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 474 pages
• Publisher: MacMillan (2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330435957
• ISBN-13: 978-0330435956
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,616,119 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

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Going to ground, April 15, 2008

By 

Linda Pagliuco "katknit" (CT, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Seventh Sacrament (Hardcover)

After their last case during their probationary exile in Venice, Nic Costa and partner Gianni Peroni look forward to resuming their careers back in Rome, and solidifying their promising personal relationships. Much to their dismay, their plans are seriously disrupted by a series of brutal murders by a perpetrator well known to the Roman polizia, one who is making dire threats against their boss, Leo Falcone. The women are forced into protective custody, while their men attempt to foil the maniacal plans of Giorgio Bramante.
Many police procedural novels highlight the pressures that their work places upon the marriages of police personnel. David Hewson does the same in this book, in which the urgencies of the case at hand override personal needs for two harrowing days. Bramante is the quintessential antagonist, a devious, vicious killer, but the true villain in this horrific crime spree is someone beyond suspicion. It is this element of surprise, coupled with the mystery that underlies a related cold case, that makes The Seventh Sacrament so compelling, a creepy crawl through underground Rome.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fans will appreciate David Hewson's superior Roman adventure., August 11, 2007

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Seventh Sacrament (Hardcover)

Fourteen years ago seven-year-old Alessio Bramante vanished in the tunnels beneath Rome's ancient Circus Maximus. His father, renowned archeology professor Giorgio Bramante had left his son by the underground labyrinth and his students were drunk and with the child when they performed a ritual at the altar of an Ancient Roman God. The kid was not found, but the police further bungled the case when they left their prime suspect, student Ludo Torchia, alone with an outraged Giorgio. He went to prison for murdering the suspect, but is now free.

However, almost from the moment the bitter Giorgio left prison, those associated with the disappearance begin to die and someone assaults Italian Police Inspector Leo Falcone, who worked on the unsolved case. He and his partner Detective Nic Costa begin making inquiries into the original vanishing as well as Giorgio's recent activity as he has the motive for serial killing vengeance plus he knows the underground like no one else does; Costa and Falcone believe the answer lies there.

Costa's last outing (see The Lizard's Bite) was one of the top police procedurals of 2006; THE SEVENTH SACRAMENT will prove likewise in 2007. The story line is fast-paced while it smoothly moves back and forth between the present and the past. The investigation is top rate filled with twists and turns while Leo brings a human element with his feelings of inadequacy and guilt. Fans will appreciate David Hewson's superior Roman adventure.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not much was learned, February 7, 2008

By 

Cassandra Merry "L'Histoire" (Westford MA.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Seventh Sacrament (Hardcover)

This was an enjoyable meander but for a book that takes place in large parts in a Mithraic Temple, one would think there would be more about that cult or religion or that the author might have seen some opportunities to utilize Mithraism to more substantial effect. Not going to happen, so if you're hoping for that, go elsewhere. As a detective story this delivers somewhat but you can find that in other places and often it will be better done.