by David Hewson
|
by David Hewson
|
by David Hewson
|
by David Hewson
|
by David Hewson
|
See buying choices for this item to see if it's one of the millions that are eligible for Amazon Prime.
|
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
Review
Convoluted if entertaining thriller in which a young Englishman encounters mysterious villains in Venice. Daniel Forster, not quite 20 and not quite out of Oxford, gets what he considers a dream summer job. It will take him to Venice, a city he's longed to visit, in order to rescue from colorful disarray the library of the venerable Signor Scacchi, a noted Venetian dealer in antiquities and other things precious. Cataloguing is the way Daniel would have described the task until the lovely Laura, Scacchi's housekeeper, redefines it for him. Nonsense, she says in her own succinct and no-nonsense way. You've been hired "to save us." How? And from what? wonders smitten Daniel in those moments when he can shake off the spell cast by Laura: a housekeeper, yes, but one extraordinaire, adored by old Signor Scacchi and everyone else in his far from conventional establishment. It's an establishment under pressure, Daniel soon learns, one teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and in desperate need of a cash infusion. Disconcertingly, then, he realizes that his actual mission is to somehow discover treasure amid the helter-skelter motley of Scacchi's possessions. And, to his surprise, he succeeds, disinterring a buried violin concerto, magnificent, Vivaldi-like, anonymous, lost since the 18th century. Even more surprising is the discovery that virtually everyone he's met in Venice has been lying to him-including Scacchi, the adorable Laura, and, perhaps most significantly, a ruthless, heartless fellow Englishman named Hugo Massiter. Like Scacchi, Massiter is a collector, driven, however, by an unhealthy, unsavory Faustian inclination. How all of this results in multiple murders while harking back to a sort of parallel universe more than two and a half centuries earlier is something else Daniel discovers-painfully. Fun, though judicious cutting would have been helpful. Hewson (A Season for the Dead, 2004, etc.) tends to the overwritten and overstuffed. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
When Daniel Forester arrives in Venice, he soon finds that the city's glittering facade masks a much darker reality. Cataloguing old manuscripts, Daniel discovers a lost musical masterpiece, and is drawn into a game of deception, leading to a spiral of criminal conspiracy and erotic pursuit.
See all Product Description
Convoluted if entertaining thriller in which a young Englishman encounters mysterious villains in Venice. Daniel Forster, not quite 20 and not quite out of Oxford, gets what he considers a dream summer job. It will take him to Venice, a city he's longed to visit, in order to rescue from colorful disarray the library of the venerable Signor Scacchi, a noted Venetian dealer in antiquities and other things precious. Cataloguing is the way Daniel would have described the task until the lovely Laura, Scacchi's housekeeper, redefines it for him. Nonsense, she says in her own succinct and no-nonsense way. You've been hired "to save us." How? And from what? wonders smitten Daniel in those moments when he can shake off the spell cast by Laura: a housekeeper, yes, but one extraordinaire, adored by old Signor Scacchi and everyone else in his far from conventional establishment. It's an establishment under pressure, Daniel soon learns, one teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and in desperate need of a cash infusion. Disconcertingly, then, he realizes that his actual mission is to somehow discover treasure amid the helter-skelter motley of Scacchi's possessions. And, to his surprise, he succeeds, disinterring a buried violin concerto, magnificent, Vivaldi-like, anonymous, lost since the 18th century. Even more surprising is the discovery that virtually everyone he's met in Venice has been lying to him-including Scacchi, the adorable Laura, and, perhaps most significantly, a ruthless, heartless fellow Englishman named Hugo Massiter. Like Scacchi, Massiter is a collector, driven, however, by an unhealthy, unsavory Faustian inclination. How all of this results in multiple murders while harking back to a sort of parallel universe more than two and a half centuries earlier is something else Daniel discovers-painfully. Fun, though judicious cutting would have been helpful. Hewson (A Season for the Dead, 2004, etc.) tends to the overwritten and overstuffed. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
When Daniel Forester arrives in Venice, he soon finds that the city's glittering facade masks a much darker reality. Cataloguing old manuscripts, Daniel discovers a lost musical masterpiece, and is drawn into a game of deception, leading to a spiral of criminal conspiracy and erotic pursuit.
See all Product Description
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
 |
54% buy the item featured on this page: Lucifer's Shadow |
 |
16% buy The Garden of Evil £4.27 |
 |
12% buy The Seventh Sacrament (Nic Costa) £5.49 |
 |
10% buy The Cemetery of Secrets£5.59 |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Customer Discussions
Beta (What's this?)|
This product's forum
(0 discussions)
Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Active discussions in related forums
|
Related forums
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
The Body Shop |
More From David Hewson
The Seventh Sacrament (Nic Costa) 'There's an entire underground city down there ...houses and temples...
Read more
|
Up to 53% off Braun Series Shavers |
Treat Someone
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). |
|||||||
| |||||
Your Recent History
(What's this?)|
You have no recently viewed items or searches.
After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session. |
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers
| ||||
Amazon Home | |
| International Sites: United States | Germany | France | Japan | Canada | China | |
| Business Programs: Sell on Amazon | Fulfilment by Amazon | Join Associates | Join Advantage | |
| Customer Service | Help | View Basket | Your Account | |
| About Amazon.co.uk | Careers at Amazon | |
| Conditions of Use & Sale | Privacy Notice © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates |