Customer Reviews

The Seventh Sacrament

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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

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.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. It seemed for me to start a little slower than the others, but that was probably just my perception. It sure got going and ended with a bang! All of these books make we want to see Rome. the great decriptions from the author and the timeless history all combine to take the reader across the sea to another time and place. Enjoy!

Set in modern day Rome, but tied intricately to the city's ancient past, "The Seventh Sacrament" is long on atmosphere and reveals a part of the city that few tourists will ever see much of, its historic catacombs. This fifth book in David Hewson's well received Nic Costa series follows the efforts of Costa and his fellow Roman policemen Gianni Peroni and Leo Falcone to solve a case that the department bungled fourteen years earlier.

When seven-year-old Alessio Bramante disappeared in one of the tunnels being studied by his archaeologist father, Giorgio, the department's chief concern was to find him while he was still alive. As time seemed to be running out, a decision was made that would ruin one man's career and haunt Detective Leo Falcone for the rest of his life. The boy's father was purposely left alone in the cell of one of the suspects in his son's disappearance where he tried to beat a confession out of the prisoner. The prisoner did not survive that encounter and, as a result, the case against him and his fellow suspects fell apart. Alessio Bramante was never found, and his father turned out to be the only one to serve prison time as a result of his disappearance.

Now, fourteen years later, someone is picking off the remaining suspects one-by-one and has even attempted to kidnap Detective Falcone. Because Giorgio Bramante has recently been released from prison it is easy to name him the prime suspect. But what proves to be nearly impossible is finding him before he finishes going down the list of men he considers responsible for the loss of his son. And Falcone appears to be at the end of that list.

Readers of earlier Nic Costa novels will already know much about the personal lives of Costa and his colleagues but Hewson has made sure that this one can be equally enjoyed by those reading their first novel in the series. His characters, including the villains, are fully-fleshed human beings who share the usual strengths and weakness of the species. One of the novel's strong points, in fact, is the way that Hewson develops personal lives for his characters and those closest to them, something that not all thriller writers bother to do.

"The Seventh Sacrament" is a complicated narrative that requires the reader to pay strict attention as Hewson tells his story via several points-of-view and across several time lines: the present, the weeks just before and just after the boy's disappearance, and fourth century Rome. But this extra effort is ultimately rewarded by the way that Hewson so completely ties together all the loose ends and false leads into a satisfying ending.

THE SEVENTH SACRAMENT is the latest installment in David Hewson's series of novels featuring Italian policeman Nic Costa. As is always the case with Hewson, one must expect nothing less than the unexpected. Back in Rome after the events that transpired in THE LIZARD'S BITE, Costa and his partner, the quietly enigmatic Gianni Peroni, investigate a series of murders tied not only to an unsolved disappearance from over a decade previously but also to a religion that was eradicated thousands of years ago.

Hewson has made a practice of bringing illumination to the dark and dusty corners of history. He does so again in his newest work, casting light upon Mithraism, a religious cult that flourished among the military and bureaucratic components of the Roman Empire until it was all but eradicated by the Emperor Constantine in 312 AD. As Hewson advises in his short but fascinating prologue, subterranean Mithraic temples have been discovered through the Roman Empire's military frontiers, including several in Rome itself.

Fourteen years before the events in THE SEVENTH SACRAMENT, a seven-year-old boy --- the son of Giorgio Bramante, a respected and feared archaeologist --- vanishes into the labyrinth of a newly discovered Mithraic temple. His father, in a rage, murders one of the students whom he believes to be responsible. The man goes to prison, a police commissario resigns in disgrace, and the boy is never found.

As the contemporary events in the book commence, Bramante is released from prison and almost immediately resumes his quest for revenge --- a quest that appears to include Leo Falcone, Costa and Peroni's inspector as a target. Their investigation incorporates a wide array of disciplines --- from archaeology to biology, from mythology to computer science, from the basest emotions to the highest ideals --- before the fascinating puzzle of Bramante's motives is revealed, and the final fate of his son, lost for so many years, is ultimately uncovered.

THE SEVENTH SACRAMENT is possibly Hewson's most accessible work, providing not one but several new wrinkles to one of the mystery genre's most reliable themes --- the abducted child --- and contrasting the ancient and modern worlds, even while setting up scenarios for future novels in the series. If you are unfamiliar with previous volumes, now is the time to jump on board.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

I am truly addicted to his series, which has returned to Rome after a Venetian exile.

David Hewson is a weekly columnist for the Sunday times. As well as several novels he has also found the time to write a number of travel books. He lives in Kent.

David Hewson's books can, to some people be extremely violent, some would say gratuitously but his books are after all thrillers and this one is up there with the best of them. I am sure that if this type of book is not your cup of tea, you will not buy it. For those who like a travelogue as well as a thriller the book open in Rome where Nic Costa and his cronies have returned from Venice. They are soon involved in another mystery surrounding fresh bloodstains on the shirt of a small boy who has gone missing. To go any deeper into the storyline would spoil it for the reader.

The author's love of foreign places is evident by the number of travel books he has written and this comes through in the background to his books. Maybe it is my imagination but having them take place in Rome and Venice etc. makes them that much more readable than say London or Manchester.