David Hewson has 21 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 22 narrators, with an average listener rating of 3.5★ across 135 ratings. The most-rated is Romeo and Juliet: A Novel.

21 audiobooks
Cover art for Romeo and Juliet: A Novel

Romeo and Juliet: A Novel

37 ratings

Summary

Exclusively written for Audible, only available in audio "I think Romeo and Juliet is the greatest, most tragic love story ever told. What David Hewson did with this script is so exciting to me. I really love the fact that he followed avenues that Shakespeare suggested but didn't necessarily detail in depth. If you want to immerse yourself in a warm bath of Garganega and the heat of Verona and hear a brilliant story about a young woman who is challenging the restraints of her time, listen to this audiobook, which has romance, poetry, politics, and humor to spare." (Narrator Richard Armitage) It's a story you think you know: the age-old tale of "star-cross'd lovers"; two families at war; a romance, so pure and absolute, fated for a tragic end. It's a story so thoroughly embedded in our culture, and so frequently retold. Yet, nothing captures the spark, the possibility, and the surprise of Shakespeare's work quite like this.... In Romeo and Juliet: A Novel, author David Hewson reworks and expands on the classic story so that it becomes something richer, something new and entirely its own. Much more than a simple love story, it is a brilliant examination of young versus old, hope against despair, and, for Juliet, the search for individual identity at a time when women were regarded as little more than chattel. An original production commissioned by Audible, Romeo and Juliet: A Novel marks the second pairing of David Hewson and actor Richard Armitage, whose previous partnership resulted in Audible's 2014 Audiobook of the Year, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel. Hewson's talent for writing for audio is undeniable, and he finds his perfect vocal foil in Armitage, an actor of immense range and absorbing intensity. Together, they bring you a familiar story told in a surprising way - with an ending you might not expect. Bonus: Audiobook includes an afterword written and narrated by David Hewson.

©2016 David Hewson (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Macbeth: A Novel

Macbeth: A Novel

18 ratings

Summary

Macbeth: A Novel brings the intricacy and grit of the historical thriller to Shakespeare’s tale of political intrigue, treachery, and murder. In this full-length novel written exclusively for audio, authors A. J. Hartley and David Hewson rethink literature’s most infamous married couple, grounding them in a medieval Scotland whose military and political upheavals are as stark and dramatic as the landscape on which they are played. Macbeth is a war hero and a patriot, doing everything in his power to hold together Duncan’s crumbling kingdom, which is beset by sedition from within and with threats from overseas. But when Duncan, contrary to ancient Scottish tradition, turns to building a family dynasty instead of rewarding those who have borne the brunt of the fighting, Macbeth and his powerful wife, Skena, make plans of their own, plans designed to hold both the nation and their strained relationship together. Sinister figures who claim supernatural knowledge spur them on, but the terrible outcome is as much about accident and failure as it is malevolence. Soon Macbeth and his wife find themselves preeminent in all the land, but struggling to hold themselves and their country together as former friends turn into bitter and deadly enemies. This is Macbeth as you have not heard it before: fresh, edgy, and vital. It is a story of valor in battle, whispering in shadows, witchcraft in the hollows of an ancient landscape, and the desperate struggle of flawed people to do what they think is right. ABOUT THE AUTHORS A. J. Hartley, a professor of Shakespeare at the Univ. of North Carolina-Charlotte, is the author of the “Will Hawthorne” fantasy series as well as several thrillers. David Hewson is the best-selling author of 16 novels, including the Rome-based “Nic Costa” crime series. ABOUT THE NARRATOR Alan Cumming stars in CBS's The Good Wife, for which he received an Emmy nomination, and is the host of PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery. He was honored with the 2011 Audie Award for Best Male Narrator. The Irish folk song “She Moved Through the Fair” is performed by Heather O'Neil of the Irish Repertory Theater.

©2011 A.J. Hartley, David Hewson (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Narrator: Alan Cumming
Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel

17 ratings

Summary

It is a tale of ghosts, of madness, of revenge - of old alliances giving way to new intrigues. Denmark is changing, shaking off its medieval past. War with Norway is on the horizon. And Hamlet - son of the old king, nephew of the new - becomes increasingly entangled in a web of deception - and murder. Struggling to find his place in this strange new order Hamlet tries to rekindle his relationship with Ophelia - the daughter of Elsinore’s cunning spy master, a man with plots of his own. Hamlet turns for advice and support to the one person he can trust -- Young Yorick, the slippery, unruly jester, whose father helped Hamlet through a difficult childhood. And all the while the armed forces of Fortinbras, prince of Norway, start to assemble, threatening to bring down Elsinore forever. Beautifully performed by actor Richard Armitage ("Thorin Oakenshield" in the Hobbit films), Hamlet, Prince of Denmark takes Shakespeare’s original into unexpected realms, reinventing a story we thought we knew. A. J. Hartley is the New York Times best-selling author of the Will Hawthorne fantasy series and several thrillers, as well as the Darwen Arkwright books for younger readers. He is the Russell Robinson Distinguished Professor of Shakespeare at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. David Hewson is the best-selling author of more than 20 novels, including the Nic Costa crime series and a trilogy of books based on the hit Danish television show The Killing. His most-recent novel, The House of Dolls, begins a new series set in Amsterdam. Richard Armitage is known to movie audiences around the world as "Thorin Oakenshield" in the trilogy of films based on The Hobbit. Born in Leicester, England, and trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Armitage has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and created memorable roles on Robin Hood, North & South, and other British TV series.

©2014 A.J. Hartley, David Hewson (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for The Chopin Manuscript

The Chopin Manuscript

5 ratings

Summary

15 thriller masters. 1 masterful thriller. Former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton possesses a previously unknown score by Frederic Chopin. But he is unaware that, locked within its handwritten notes, lies a secret that now threatens the lives of thousands of Americans. As he races from Poland to America to uncover the mystery of the manuscript, Middleton will be accused of murder, pursued by federal agents, and targeted by assassins. But the greatest threat will come from a shadowy figure out of his past: the man known only as Faust. The Chopin Manuscript is a unique collaboration by 15 of the world's greatest thriller writers. Jeffery Deaver conceived the characters and set the plot in motion; the other authors each wrote a chapter in turn. Deaver then completed what he started, bringing The Chopin Manuscript to its explosive conclusion. The Chopin Manuscript was written by:Jeffery Deaver (Lincoln Rhyme series) David Hewson (Nic Costa series) James Grady (Six Days of the Condor)S. J. Rozan (Bill Smith/Lydia Chin series) Erica Spindler (Last Known Victim) John Ramsey Miller (Winter Massey series) David Corbett (Blood of Paradise)John Gilstrap (Scott Free)Joseph Finder (Power Play)Jim Fusilli (Terry Orr series) Peter Spiegelman (John March series) Ralph Pezzullo (Jawbreaker)Lisa Scottoline (Daddy's Girl)P.J. Parrish (Louis Kincaid, Joe Frye series) Lee Child (Jack Reacher series)

©2007 International Thriller Writers, Inc., Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, David Hewson, James Grady, S. J. Rozan, Erica Spindler, John Ramsey Miller, David Corbett, John Gilstrap, Joseph Finder, Jim Fusilli, Peter Spiegelman, Ralph Pezzullo, Lisa Scottoline, and P. J. Parrish (P)2007 Audible, Inc.

Available on Audible
Cover art for The Copper Bracelet

The Copper Bracelet

3 ratings

Summary

A peaceful picnic in the French countryside explodes in violence. A mysterious assassin hisses a deadly threat. And events are set in motion that could propel India and Pakistan down the road to nuclear confrontation.Two years after the events of the Audiobook of the Year - The Chopin Manuscript - former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton and his Volunteers once again must crack a secretive conspiracy that not only threatens their lives, but the stability of the world. Their race against time will take them from London to the U.S. to Russia and beyond. And at the heart of it all is one question: What is the secret of the Copper Bracelet?Sixteen of the world's greatest thriller writers collaborated on The Copper Bracelet. Once again, as he did with The Chopin Manuscript, Jeffery Deaver wrote the first chapter. Then, each successive author wrote a chapter in turn, finally returning it to Deaver to complete this thrilling sequel.The Copper Bracelet was written by:Jeffery Deaver Gayle LyndsDavid Hewson Jim Fusilli John Gilstrap Joseph FinderLisa ScottolineDavid Corbett Linda Barnes Jenny Siler David Liss P.J. Parrish Brett BattlesLee Child Jon Land James PhelanPROJECT EDITOR: Jim Fusilli

©2009 International Thriller Writers, Inc., Jeffery Deaver, Gayle Lynds, David Hewson, Jim Fusilli, John Gilstrap, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, David Corbett, Linda Barnes, Jenny Siler, David Liss, P.J. Parrish, Brett Battles, Lee Child, Jon Land, James Phelan (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Available on Audible
Cover art for The Garden of Angels

The Garden of Angels

1 rating

Summary

At his beloved Nonno Paolo's deathbed, 15-year-old Nico receives a gift that will change his life forever: a yellowing manuscript which tells the haunting, twisty tale of what really happened to his grandfather in Nazi-occupied Venice in 1943. The Palazzo Colombina is home to the Uccello family: three generations of men, trapped together in the dusty palace on Venice's Grand Canal. Awkward 15-year-old Nico. His distant, business-focused father. And his beloved grandfather, Paolo. Paolo is dying. But before he passes, he has secrets he's waited his whole life to share. When a Jewish classmate is attacked by bullies, Nico just watches - earning him a week's suspension and a typed, yellowing manuscript from his frail Nonno Paolo. A history lesson, his grandfather says. A secret he must keep from his father. A tale of blood and madness....  Nico is transported back to the Venice of 1943, an occupied city seething under its Nazi overlords and to the defining moment of his grandfather's life: when Paolo's support for a murdered Jewish woman brings him into the sights of the city's underground resistance. Hooked and unsettled, Nico can't stop reading - but he soon wonders if he ever knew his beloved grandfather at all.

©2021 David Hewson (P)2021 W. F. Howes

Author: David Hewson
Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for The Villa of Mysteries

The Villa of Mysteries

1 rating

Summary

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...

©2004 David Hewson (P)2004 W F Howes Ltd

Narrator: Christopher Kay
Author: David Hewson
Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for The Savage Shore

The Savage Shore

1 rating

Summary

Detective Nic Costa finds himself a stranger in a strange land when he's sent to infiltrate the mob in a remote part of southern Italy. Roman police detective Nic Costa has been sent undercover to Italy's beautiful, remote Calabrian coast to bring in the head of the feared mob, the 'Ndrangheta, who has offered to turn state witness for reasons of his own. Hoping to reel in the biggest prize the state police have seen in years, the infamous Butcher of Palermo, Costa and his team are aware the stakes are high. But the constant deception is taking its toll. Out of their depth in a lawless part of Italy where they are the outcasts, not the men in the hills, with their shotguns and rough justice, the detectives find themselves pitched as much against one another as against the mob.  As the tension rises, it's clear the operation is not going to plan. Is Nic Costa getting too close to the enemy for comfort - and is there a traitor among them...?

©2018 David Hewson (P)2018 W. F. Howes Ltd

Narrator: Saul Reichlin
Author: David Hewson
Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for A Season for the Dead

A Season for the Dead

1 rating

Summary

In a hushed Vatican reading room, the scene was shocking: a crazed professor shot dead after brandishing evidence of a grisly crime. Moments later, two bodies are found in a nearby church, each with a gruesome calling card from the killer. As the August heat takes Rome in its fiery grip, the news of the two brutal murders holds the city in thrall. And as the media gathers and Vatican officials close ranks, a young detective is sent to the forefront of the case. Nic Costa is the son of an infamous Italian Communist, a connoisseur of Caravaggio, and a cop who barely looks his twenty-seven years of age. Thrust into the heart of a killing spree that will rattle his city down to its ancient bones, Nic meets a woman who will soon dominate both his consciousness and his investigation. A cool, beautiful professor of early Christianity, Sara Farnese was in the Vatican library on that fateful day, a witness to her colleague's strange outburst and death. But her role will become even more puzzling as more bodies are found: Each victim killed in a gory tableau of Christian martyrdom. And each victim had intimately known Sara, whose silence Costa cannot quite crack and whose carnal history becomes more lurid and unfathomable with every revelation. Soon, a nightmarish chase is implicating politicians and priests - while at the heart of the matter remains the woman Costa is both investigating and guarding. Wanting to believe in Sara's innocence, Nic still cannot turn his eyes from the truths he is uncovering. Even as the secrets of a woman, a killer and a city begin to unravel...with devastating consequences.

©2003 David Hewson (P)2003 W F Howes Ltd

Narrator: Sean Baker
Author: David Hewson
Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Last Seen Wearing

Last Seen Wearing

1 rating

Summary

It's a private eye’s job to dig up secrets. But what if those secrets turn out to be her own? It’s been two years since Dinah Collins left the NYPD in disgrace, forced out for digging too deeply into the sudden disappearance of a fellow cop—her brother, Danny. Now, scraping by as a PI, Dinah is hired to find a young woman, Lucy Fisher, who vanished on Halloween, last seen wearing a creepy costume. As she pursues a deadly trail of clues, Dinah will find she’s faced with a terrible choice: If she can only save one person, Danny or Lucy, who will it be? Last Seen Wearing is a novel-length, full-cast dramatic production and the latest gripping crime story from internationally best-selling author David Hewson. Last Seen Wearing is performed by: Laurence Bouvard as Dinah Collins; John Guerrasio as Mike Collins; Stuart Milligan as Tom Fisher; Lorelei King as Caroline Fisher; Martin T. Sherman as Frank Taylor; Vaughn Johseph as Ben Campbell; Lachele Carl as Lenora Parks; Danielle Lewis as Jillian Delano; Thomas Stroppel as Curtis Mason; Paul Panting as Edward Marchant; Adeila Leiro as Rose Martinez; Jared Zeus as Danny Collins; Samantha Dakin as Lucy Fisher. With additional performances by David Brooks, Garrick Hagon, Katie Harper, Antonio Mattera, Isabella Mattera, Oleg Mirochnikov, William Roberts, and Liza Ross. 

©2019 David Hewson (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC.

Available on Audible
Cover art for The Sacred Cut

The Sacred Cut

Summary

It's approaching Christmas in Rome and snow is falling in a way that only happens every twenty or thirty years. The city is soon paralyzed by an unseasonal icy grip, and in the dark corners of the Pantheon a grim and mysterious story begins to unfold. Nic Costa and his partner Gianni Peroni are called to reports of an intruder. Instead they find a woman's naked body, scarred in a geometric pattern. Almost immediately they are met by a team from the FBI determined to take over an investigation into what they claim is a killer murdering American tourists around the world, in ways which link back to the mystical structure of the Pantheon itself. But one agent, Emily Deacon, has a different story to tell, one that has a tragic personal dimension. Through her and an elusive Iraqi girl Laila, only witness to the death in the Pantheon, Nic Costa is pulled relentlessly into the world of the Iraq war and the shadowy secret agents whose job was to penetrate the regime of Saddam Hussein before the armed forces attacked. Soon he is aware that there is a conspiracy at the heart of these deaths which runs back to Washington, and the past of Emily Deacon's dead father, a tangle of connections he has to unravel, even if it comes at a considerable personal and professional cost. A madman is loose in the frozen winter landscape of Rome, and as Costa soon realises, he is one the American agents know only too well...

©2005 David Hewson (P)2005 W.F. Howes Ltd.

Narrator: Saul Reichlin
Author: David Hewson
Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for The Fallen Angel

The Fallen Angel

Summary

Detective Nic Costa faces his hardest case yet. When the sins of the past echo the crimes of the present... When British academic Malise Gabriel falls to his death from a Rome apartment, detective Nic Costa suspects more than a simple accident. Nic is sure Malise's family are hiding vital information. As the investigation deepens, Rome’s seedy side is uncovered, revealing a web of deceit, treachery and corruption. The key to the truth lies with the Gabriels. Why are they so unwilling to co-operate, and who, or what, is the reason for their silence?

©2011 David Hewson (P)2011 W F Howes Ltd

Narrator: Saul Reichlin
Author: David Hewson
Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for The Garden of Evil

The Garden of Evil

Summary

Nominated for the Audiobook Download of the Year, 2008. In a hidden studio in Rome, an art expert is found dead in front of one of the most beautiful paintings Nic Costa has ever seen - an unknown Caravaggio masterpiece. But before long, tragedy will strike Nic far closer to home. The main suspect's identity is known, but he remains untouchable, protected by a fleet of lawyers and a sinister cult known as the Ekstasists. If Costa can crack the reasons for the cult's existence, he may well stand a chance of nailing his wife's killer. But the mystery will take him right back to Caravaggio himself and the reasons he had to flee Rome, all those centuries before.

©2008 David Hewson (P)2008 WF Howes Ltd

Narrator: Saul Reichlin
Author: David Hewson
Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for The Lizard's Bite

The Lizard's Bite

Summary

On an August night on a small island near Venice, a fire explodes in a glassmaking shop. When help arrives, two people are dead, a rich Englishman is implicated, and investigators from Rome are assigned a case no one wants them to solve.... On their private island, the Arcangelo family defy the world: living in a decaying palazzo, making glass in a terrifying, archaic furnace, watching their absurd exhibition hall sink into disrepair. But now the world is coming to their dying outpost in a crumbling corner of a Venice that tourists never see. Police boats and vaporetti bring investigators, curiosity seekers, and one man who plans to own the property himself. With two family members consumed by the foundry fire, both mystery and opportunity have been bared to the bone.On special assignment from Rome, Detective Nic Costa, along with his partner, his boss, and a dogged pathologist named Teresa Lupo, is getting in the way of progress, Venetian-style. They know that Uriel Arcangelo and his wife were murdered. They know that a predatory Englishman must be a suspect, as is the family of the murdered woman. And while everyone wants the Roman cops to give up and go home, they can¿t - because a matter of desire, death, and lies has just turned murderously on one of them....

©David Hewson; (P)W F Howes Ltd

Narrator: Saul Reichlin
Author: David Hewson
Length: 13 hrs
Available on Audible
Cover art for Carnival for the Dead

Carnival for the Dead

Summary

It's February, and Carnival time in Venice. Bright blue skies and freezing temperatures welcome forensic pathologist Teresa Lupo to the city. Teresa has taken time out from her job to find her beloved bohemian aunt Sofia who has mysteriously disappeared. There seem to be no clues as to her whereabouts, but a visit to Sofia's very strange apartment in the Dorsoduro confirms Teresa’s suspicions that all is not well....

©2012 David Hewson (P)2012 W F Howes Ltd

Narrator: Juanita McMahon
Author: David Hewson
Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Devil's Fjord

Devil's Fjord

Summary

Newly appointed District Sheriff Tristan Haraldsen and his wife, Elsebeth, are looking forward to a peaceful semiretirement in the remote fishing village of Djevulsfjord on the stunningly beautiful island of Vagar. But when two boys go missing during the first whale hunt of the season, the repercussions strike at the heart of the isolated coastal community. As he pursues his investigations, Tristan discovers that the Mikkelsen brothers aren’t the first young men to have vanished on Vagar.  Determined to solve the mystery of Djevulsfjord, yet encountering suspicion wherever he turns, Haraldsen comes to realize he and his wife are not living in the rural paradise they had imagined and that the wild beauty of the region hides a far darker reality.

©2018 David Hewson (P)2019 W.F. Howes Ltd

Narrator: Saul Reichlin
Author: David Hewson
Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Sleep Baby Sleep

Sleep Baby Sleep

Summary

Twenty-two-year-old Annie Schrijver works in the picturesque Albert Cuyp flower market. But then she goes missing, only to be found barely alive, tied to a stone angel in a graveyard. But Annie seems to have been the lucky one, as a body is found nearby. Detective Pieter Vos knows that if he is to outwit the murderer, he will need to employ everything he has to avert a greater tragedy.

©2017 David Hewson (P)2017 W.F. Howes Ltd

Narrator: Saul Reichlin
Author: David Hewson
Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Dante's Numbers

Dante's Numbers

Summary

In the gorgeous grounds of Rome's Villa Borghese park the glitterati of the movie world are gathered for a world premiere. A legendary Italian movie director has come out of retirement to create a blockbuster based on Dante's Inferno. But, as Nic Costa and his colleagues attempt to guard the precious collection of historic artifacts attached to the event, the premiere is disrupted by tragedy and a horrific murder. Is a disgruntled admirer of Dante taking his revenge on the cast of the movie? Or are more mundane motives, the dubious financing of the film through criminal connections, to blame? Before Costa and crew have the chance to find out they are removed from the inquiry and find themselves sidelined by the Carabinieri. But when the movie premiere shifts to California and the iconic surroundings of the Marina in San Francisco, Nic Costa's inspector, Leo Falcone, manages to bring them along to work on the investigation from the sidelines. And as life begins to resemble art, Costa and his friends come to realise that the inspiration behind these crimes may be more recent than the Carabinieri suspect.

©2008 David Hewson (P)2008 WF Howes Ltd

Narrator: Saul Reichlin
Author: David Hewson
Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Lucifer's Shadow

Lucifer's Shadow

Summary

Now also known as Cemetry of Secrets. In an ancient burial ground on an island off Venice, a young woman's casket is pried open, an object is wrenched from her hands, and an extraordinary adventure begins. From the moment he arrives in Venice, Daniel Forster is seduced by the city's mystery. An earnest young academic, Daniel has come for a summer job cataloguing a private collector's library. But when Daniel's employer sends him to buy a stolen violin from a petty thief, a chain reaction of violence and deception ignites. Suddenly Daniel is drawn into a police investigation - and a tempest swirling around a beautiful woman, a mysterious palazzo, and a lost musical masterpiece dating back centuries. With each step he takes, Daniel unwittingly retraces a journey that began in 1733, when another young man came to Venice. And when, in this realm of intrigue and beauty, two lovers came face-to-face with a killer - and a mystery was born...

©2001 David Hewson (P)2001 W F Howes Ltd

Narrator: Christopher Kay
Author: David Hewson
Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for The Seventh Sacrament

The Seventh Sacrament

Summary

Winner of the Audible Sounds of Crime Award 2008 for best unabridged audiobook.Longlisted for the Audiobook Download of the Year, 2007.It begins on one of Rome's least-known hills, the Aventino, in the public piazza fronting the mansion of the Knights of Malta. There, a curious keyhole to the knights' estate reveals an astonishing view, a direct line across the Tiber to the dome of St. Peters in the distance. For seven-year-old Alessio Bramante the act of peeping through the keyhole on his way to school each day is a ritual, a way of establishing a bond with his difficult, distant father, one of Rome's most famous archaeologists, Giorgio Bramante. Then one day, after an unexpected visit to one of Giorgio's underground excavations, Alessio disappears. A group of students who had slipped into the site, an ancient Mithraic temple, attract the blame. A tragedy occurs. Alessio is never found, and it's his father who goes to jail. Fourteen years later, in an arcane shrine by the Tiber known as the Little Museum of Purgatory, a tee-shirt belonging to Bramante's son begins to show fresh bloodstains. No one can understand how the marks have appeared behind the glass. Soon it becomes apparent that the newly-released Giorgio Bramante is bent upon a vicious and terrifying revenge on all those he blames for the loss of his son, and numbers Inspector Leo Falcone, a member of the original investigating team, among his targets. In the depths of the labyrinth he knows better than any man, a distraught father seeks his vengeance against those he hates. Nic Costa, watching Falcone move relentlessly into the man's deadly grip, realises the answer to the deadly present must lie in solving a cold case that, like the forgotten Alessio Bramante, has long been regarded as dead and buried for good...

©2007 David Hewson (P)2007 W F Howes Ltd.

Narrator: Saul Reichlin
Author: David Hewson
Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
Available on Audible