The Villa of Mysteries (Mass Market Paperback)

~ David Hewson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The climax is taut and exciting ... there's an interesting score being settled by rival mobsters, some dark family secrets coming to light and some nasty betrayals in the works."
--San Francisco Chronicle


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

In a thriller of astounding menace and power, the acclaimed author of A Season for the Dead returns to the landscape he has made his own—the seething landscape of modern-day Rome–where ancient crimes lie hidden beneath colorful, bustling avenues. Here a teenage girl has disappeared, a detective is exploring a 2000-year-old ritual–and an astonishing mystery is about to unravel in a city of secrets and rage….

In Rome’s crowded Campo dei Fiori, a woman rushes up to two carabinieri lounging in their sunglasses and uniforms, insisting that her sixteen-year-old daughter has just been abducted. Detective Nic Costa sees the scene unfold and intervenes. Because Costa knows what the two officers don’t: that in the morgue at Rome’s police headquarters, a forensic pathologist is examining the strange, mummified corpse of another
girl, whose disappearance and death bear haunting similarities….

Police pathologist Teresa Lupo is Nic’s colleague, friend, and his only equal when it comes to breaking the rules to get results, whatever the cost. Now, after years of living with the dead, Teresa insists that her superiors move quickly to save a life. Poring over the body of the girl in the morgue, she has found too many similarities between the girls, including a unique, leering tattoo. Lupo is sure that the vanished girl is headed for a bizarre ancient Bacchanalia involving virgins and sacrificial murder–a ritual that is only days away.

As Nic and Teresa claw at the case from two sides–and as Nic finds himself at once puzzled and beguiled by the missing girl’s seductive mother–a chilling picture is beginning to emerge…of secret relationships and sexual depravity, organized crime and unimaginable corruption. With the clock ticking down on a young girl’s life, Nic and Teresa are about to make the most horrifying discovery of all—in a pit of human darkness, where an age-old malevolence still endures, evil has consumed innocence…and a very modern vengeance has begun.

A spellbinding mix of suspense, forensic science, and human drama, The Villa of Mysteries will catch you off guard at every turn—a novel that is at once heartbreaking and impossible to put down.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Dell; First Thus edition (August 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440242371
• ISBN-13: 978-0440242376
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #154,094 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Villa of Boredom, February 27, 2006

By	L. Patterson "graphic designer and Mac wonk" (Rising Fawn, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I love this genre, police procedurals, but have never read this author's work and thought this would be a great one to start on. Instead, I struggled with maintaining any interest in the characters, who I found to be unsympathetic, one-dimensionally drawn and therefore, boring! I also found the storyline to be a tired and very contrived old one. I woun't give you a synopsis; others will do that, I'm sure. I found the protagonist, a police detective, to be duly angst-ridden, but underneath the steely exterior, there is usually some redeeming feature that makes us interested in them and even like them. Moreover, I could not like or even maintain my interest in any of the stereotypical main characters: the detective with a tragic past, his superior, whose problem seemed to be infidelity, the spunky troublemaking, female pathologist and the jaded old cop, smoking like a facory and demoted for having sex with a female prostitute as part of a payoff in a payola scam. If you like this genre, read the masters: Peter Robinson, Ian Rankin, Robert Wilson, Reginald Hill, James Hime, Kirino's great "Out," a Japanese procedural that is UNBELIEVABLE!, and David Baldacci. I bought 2 of this series and will try the other to see if this was just a momentary glitch.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Even better the second time around., October 17, 2005

By	R. B. Bernstein "R. B. Bernstein, Adjunct Pro... (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

David Hewson's second novel in what promises to be a first-rate series of mysteries set in Rome is even better than its predecessor, and that's saying a great deal about how good it is. Consistently entertaining, giving a wonderful feel for its Roman setting without larding it on with a trowel, with a splendid array of plausible and vivid characters, this book deserves the old cliche: "I couldn't put it down." The only flaw, and it's not all that much of a flaw, is that the climax is occasionally unclear, but I can't explain why without giving away a mass of vital plot details, so just read and enjoy.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars let's do the twist, July 25, 2006

By	Linda "katknit" (CT, United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)

David Hewson is a fresh voice in the huge genre of mysteries set in places other than America. Villa of Mysteries has an attractive central character in Nic Costa, a young, bright, and thoughtful Questura inspector who does not suffer from the overlay of perfection that so many others of this type are given. Villa takes place in Rome and its immediate environs, and Hewson's settings in the ancient port city of Ostia, where the crimes are perpetrated, are well described and atmospheric. The police subculture, which is complicated in Italy, is also well portrayed. As for plotting, this story offers unforeseen twists and turns every couple of chapters, and is tricky enough to permit an element of genuine surprise to pop up at the end.
I'm now reading the first of this short series, A Season for the Dead, and enjoying that as well.