
Author: D. V. Bishop
Series: Cesare Aldo #2
Published by: Pan Macmillan on Sep. 6, 2022
Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller
Pages: 432
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publishers Group Canada
Book Rating: 9/10
Florence. Spring, 1537.
When Cesare Aldo investigates a report of intruders at a convent in the Renaissance city’s northern quarter, he enters a community divided by bitter rivalries and harbouring dark secrets.
His case becomes far more complicated when a naked man’s body is found deep inside the convent, stabbed more than two dozen times. Unthinkable as it seems, all the evidence suggests one of the nuns must be the killer.
Meanwhile, Constable Carlo Strocchi finds human remains pulled from the Arno that belong to an officer of the law missing since winter. The dead man had many enemies, but who would dare kill an official of the city’s most feared criminal court?
As Aldo and Strocchi close in on the truth, identifying the killers will prove more treacherous than either of them could ever have imagined . . .
Review:
Sinister, evocative, and enthralling!
The Darkest Sin is the complex, thrilling sequel that takes us back to Renaissance Florence in the spring of 1537 and into the life of Cesare Aldo, an officer of the Otto di Guardia e Balia, who now finds himself not only investigating the murder of a naked man found stabbed to death within the walls of the Santa Maria Magdalena convent, but also hoping that Constable Strocchi doesn’t have too much success discovering who actually killed their fellow brutish officer, Cherchi, who’s been missing since winter and whose body has just been recently discovered floating in the river Arno.
The prose is seamless and expressive. The characters are methodical, diligent, and tormented. And the plot is a gripping, twisty tale about life, loss, friendship, secrets, duty, deception, danger, abuse, corruption, politics, violence, and murder.
Overall, The Darkest Sin is another fabulous addition to the Cesare Aldo series by Bishop that does an exceptional job of interweaving historical times and compelling fiction into a gritty, suspenseful mystery that is darkly entertaining and exceptionally atmospheric.
This novel is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to PGC Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.